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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



TWO SKLKCTIONS. 

THE 

LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 

AND 

RIP VAN WINKLE 

FROM skf;tch book by 

WASHINGTON IRVING 



WITH NOTES, QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS ON TEACHING, 
ETC., FOR SCHOOIv USE, BY 



J. W. GRAHAM 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS OF KINGS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 




SAN FRANCISCO 

THE WHITAKER & RAY COMPANY 
(incorporated) 

1902 



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G@NGR£SS, 

Two COHitS RECEfVEB 

IVIAY. 5 1902 

COPVRI«HT ENTRY 

CLASS €L.XXo. No.j 
COPY S. I 



Copyright, 1902 

by 

The Whitaker & Ray Co. 






PREFACE. 

The object of this edition of Legend of Sleepy Hollow 
and Eip Van Winkle is to enable the busy teacher to 
teach these subjects thoroughly and with less time than 
heretofore ; also to give the new teacher a definite idea 
of what should be required of a class. 

The plan presented here is no experiment but has been 
in successful use in the schools of this (Kings) county for 
some time. It was not introduced into the schools in 
its present form but has grown from year to year until 
it has developed into the present plan, and is now in 
use by a number of successful teachers practically the 
same as here presented. It has not been the aim of this 
work to give a '' IS'ew Plan " of teaching Literature,, but 
rather to exemplify the daily work, from actual recita- 
tions, in the two subjects treated. 

The compilers of this book are aware that many 
teachers of English insist that a piece of literature 
should not be " torn all to pieces " in the study of it, as 
the beauty and harmony are thereby destroyed. There 
may be some truth in this contention but certain it is 
that if questions, and many of them, are not asked the 
beauties will never be made clear to the average student, 
toward whom most of the teaching should be directed. 
There is no other way in which the average pupil can 
be made to get the thought of an author than by means 
of questions. Inasmuch as questions must be used, it 
has seemed wise to place in the book a carefully pre- 



PREFACE. 



pared list, covering the entire work, which may be safely 
used hj any teacher. 

Thanks are due many teachers of this county for the 
use of their note-books so freely given. 

J. W. GEAHAM. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Suggestions to Teachers -- 7 

B10GP.APHY OF Irving -_--.-_ 9 

Legend op Sleepy Hollow ------ h 

WosDS Feom Legend of Sleepy Hollow to Be Looked U? 55 

Questions on Legend of Sleepy Hollow - - - - 61 

Eip Van Winkle -----.-- 66 

Words Feom Sip Van Winkle to Be Looked Up - - 90 

Questions on Eip Van Wrinkle 92 



SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

The notes given at the bottom of the pages are intended 
simply to assist the pupil in reading the story somewhat intel- 
ligently and rapidly the first time. On the second reading the 
obscure passages and references should be more fully explained. 

Have pupils read as many short biographies of Irving as pos- 
sible. Urge them to find out all they can about his life and per- 
sonal habits. Give plenty of composition work. Take recita- 
tion period occasionally for short compositions on the black- 
board. Have these compositions criticised by members of the 
class before the close of the recitation. More original work can 
be obtained in this way than by giving a pupil several days in 
which to prepare a composition. The work, however, should not 
all be done in this manner. Longer compositions should be re- 
quired regularly and more time should be given for the prepara- 
tion of them. 

The list of words given to be looked up in the dictionary may 
seem too full. If any pupil already knows the meaning of a 
given word, as used by the author, he should not be required to 
look up that word, but be sure that the meaning is thoroughly 
understood before excusing a pupil. Children as a rule are de- 
ficieat in a knowledge of the exact meaning of words. A close 
study of Irving will do much to overcome this, as but few writers 
in the English language have equaled him in the facility of ex- 
pression. When pupils first begin the study of Literature proper 
they should be taught the value of this nice discrimination in 
the use of words. 

Teach the ordinary figures of speech, such as simile, hyper- 
bole, etc., but do not overtax the pupils with them at this time. 

It is not supposed that teachers will confine themselves to 
the questions given, nor that they will continue to use the same 
questions from year to year. This list is prepared to aid the 
busy teacher, and also as an index to the new teacher as to what 
proficiency should be required. 

In the manner of conducting a recitation it is impossible to 
give any set rules which may be followed by all teachers. No 



8 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

two teachars use the same method and no teacher follows exactly 
the same plan with any two consecutive classes. There are a 
few main points, however, which may be followed by all teachers. 
A few of the most general suggestions are offered. 

When the work is assigned, it is a good plan to have the class 
understand that each pupil is to read the lesson aloud at least 
once before the recitation hour. 

During the recitation have a pupil read a paragraph, or more 
if desired, and then close the book and give in his own language 
the principal thoughts of the part read. Vary the exercise 
occasionally by having one pupil read and another interpret. 
The teacher should guard against giving her own interpretation 
to a sentence and then leading the pupil, and herself, to think 
that it is the pupil's. Strange as it may seem, this is often done. 

Insist on the pupil's forcing his mind to grasp, as nearly as 
possible, the full meaning of the author on the first reading. It 
should not be necessary to refer to the book in order to complete 
the interpretation of the longest paragraph. 

At the beginning of the recitation it is well to ask a few perti- 
nent questions on the previous work. 

Whenever a paragraph having a peculiar charm is read have 
pupil find, if possible, what gives it the charm. Paragraphs 37, 
39, and 56 in Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and 14 and 15 in Kip 
Van Winkle are particularly suited for this kind of work. These 
are not the only ones, nor necessarily the best ones, but are 
given simply as illustrations. 

Have particularly pleasing passages memorized. 

Have the pupils do but little paraphrasing. This work, when 
done at all, should be under the most careful supervision of the 
teacher. 

The teacher should encourage the pupils to do most of the 
talking during recitation. It is easier, and more natural, for 
the teacher to do the talking herself, but it is not so proStable to 
the pupils. 

When pupils have difficulty in explaining any particular pas- 
sage it is usually better for the teacher to draw out the explana- 
tion by skilful questioning than to give it outright. 



BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF WASHINGTON 
IRVING. 

Washington Irving was born in New York on April 3, 1783. 
He was the youngest of a family of eleven children— eight boys 
and three girls. While still a school-boy he was strongly tempted 
to run away from home and go to sea. In order to accustom 
himself to the hardships of sea-life he began eating salt pork 
and lying on the hard floor. He soon became tired of this prac- 
tice and gave up all thoughts of going to sea. 

Irving's first attempt at writing was a humorous verse on a 
larger playmate and a young girl acquaintance. The lines 
caused so much fun at the boy's expense that he became angry 
and gave Irving a sound whipping for writing them. This was 
not a very encouraging beginning, but Irving did not give up his 
writing. He had also become a great reader by this time, his 
favorite books being '* Robin?on Crusoe," " Sinbad the Sailor," 
and *'The World Displayed." 

At the age of seventeen Irving began the study of law, and 
continued in a half-hearted manner for several years, but did not 
accomplish anything as a lawyer. Even while pretending to 
practice law he put in the most of his time writing. On the 
failure of his brothers, with whom he was associated in business 
as a silent partner, he took up literature as a profession. The 
publication of "The History of New York, by Diedrich Knick- 
erbocker, " made him famous both at home and abroad. The 
noted English poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott, was greatly 
pleased with the work and did much tow^ard making it popular. 
"The Sketch-Book," published in 1819-20, under the nom de 
plume of " Geoffrey Crayon," at once placed Irving in the front 
ranks of English writers, while "The Life and Voyages of 
Columbus," in 1828, firmly established the reputation already 
given him by "The Sketch-Book." 

Irving possessed a happy disposition, as his w^ritings truly 
indicate. He had rather more than his share of trouble, but 
through it all he never lost his sunny disposition nor permitted 
himself to brood over his misfortunes. 



10 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 

In 1835, Irving purchased a small estate of ten acres at Tarry- 
Town. The house belonging to the estate was a small Dutch 
stone cottage, built by one of the Van Tassel family about one 
hundred years before. Irving remodeled and greatly enlarged 
the house and planted slips of ivy from Melrose Abbey. In after 
years the ivy completely covered the walls. Irving named the 
house "Wolfert's Roost," but it was afterward changed to 
" Sunnyside." Here Irving died suddenly of heart-failure on 
November 28, 1859. The funeral procession passed over the 
bridge which Irving had immortalized in "Legend of Sleepy 
Hollow,'' and which was draped in black for the occasion. 

It has well been said of him that "God doesn't send many 
such spirits into this world." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH 
KNICKERBOCKER. 

"A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 

Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; 
And oi gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
Forever flushing round a summer sky." 

— Castle of Indolence. 

1. In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which 
indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad 
expansion of the river denominated by the ancient 
Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they 
always prudently shortened sail, and implored the pro- 
tection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a 
small market-town or rural port, which by some is called 
Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly 
known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was 
given it, we are told, in former days, by the good house- 
wives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate pro- 
pensity of their husbands to linger about the village 

Diedrich Knickerbocker, (die'drick nick'ei' bock'er,) the 
pen name of Washington Irving, under which he wrote a bur- 
lesque history of New York. The name Knickerbocker origin- 
ally meant the early Dutch settlers of New York, but now the 
term is applied to all persons living in that State. A person from 
New York is known as a " Knickerbocker." 

Castle of Indolence, a poem written by James Thomson, 
the most popular poet in the English language before Scott and 
Byron. 



10 



12 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLO V/. 

tavern on market-days. Be that as it may, I do not 
vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it for the sake 
of being precise and authentic. Not far from this vil- 15 
lage, perhaps about three miles, there is a little valley, 
or rather lap of land, among high hills, which is one of 
the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook 
glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one 
to repose ; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tap- 20 
ping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that 
ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity. 

2. I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in 
squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that 
shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at 25 
noon-time, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was 
startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the Sab- 
bath stillness around and was prolonged and reverber- 
ated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a 
retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its 30 
distractions, and dream quietly avv^ay the remnant of a 
troubled life. I know of none more promising than this 
little valley. 

3. From the listless repose of the place, and the 
peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descend- ss 
ants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered 
glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hol- 
low, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow 
Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, 
dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to 40 
pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place 

1. St. Nicholas, one of the early b:'shops who was supposed 
to have unusual powers. But little is definitely known of him, 
and he is popular mainly through traditions. He is regarded in 
some countries as the especial patron of children. (See Colum- 
bian Cyclopedia, vol. 21.) 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 13 

was bewitched hy a high German doctor, during the 
early days of the settlement ; others, that an old Indian 
chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his pow- 
wows there before the country was discovered by Master 45 
Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is the place still continues 
under the sway of some witching power, that holds a 
spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to 
walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all 
kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and 50 
visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear 
music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood 
abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight 
superstitions ; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener 
across the valley than in any other part of the countr}", 55 
and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to 
make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 

4. The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this 
enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief 
of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on so 
horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the 
ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried 

3. Hendrick Hudson, an early English explorer who made 
several unsuccessful attempts to find a northeast passage to 
India and China. Finding that impossible, he turned westward 
expecting to reach India in that direction, but was stopped by 
the American continent. On his last voyage he spent the winter 
in Hudson's Bay, (so named in his honor) and determined to 
continue his explorations in the spring. Food becoming scarce 
some of his sailors became impressed with the idea that Hudson 
intended to leave them behind, and so they determined to put 
him to death. They placed him, with his little son and a few 
faithful friends, in a small boat and set them adrift upon the 
bay. It has never been known how they perished, but no doubt 
they either died from starvation or were murdered by the 
Indians. 



14 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

away by a canuon-ball, in some nameless battle during 
the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen 
by the country-folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, 
as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not con- 65 
fined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent 
roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church that is 
at no great distance. Indeed, certain of the most au- 
thentic historians of those parts, who have been careful 
in collecting and collating the floating facts concerning 70 
this spectre, allege that the body of the trooper having 
been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to 
the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head ; and 
that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes 
along the Hollow like a midnight blast, is owing to his 75 
being belated and in a hurry to get back to the church- 
yard before daybreak. 

5. Such is the general purport of this legendary 
superstition, which has furnished materials for many a 
wild story in that region of shadows ; and the spectre is so 
known at all the country firesides by the name of the 
Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. 

6. It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I 
have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabitants 
of the valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by every one 85 
who resides there for a time. However wide awake 
they may have been before thej^ entered that sleepy 
region, they are sure, in a little time to inhale the witch- 
ing influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative, 
to dream dreams and see apparitions. 90 

7. I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud , 

4. Hessian Trooper, a trooper belonging to a body of Hes- 
sian soldiers hired by England to fight the Americans during 
the Revolutionary War. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 15 

for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here 
and there embosomed in the great State of iS'ew York, 
that population, manners and customs remain fixed; 
while the great torrent of migration and improvement, 95 
which is making such incessant changes in other parts 
of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved. 
They are like those little nooks of still water which 
border a rapid stream, where we may see the straw and 
bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving inioo 
their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the pass- 
ing current. Though many years have elapsed since I 
trod the drowsy shades of Sleepy Hollow, yet I question 
whether I should not still find the same trees and the 
same families vegetating in its sheltered bosom. 105 

8. In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote 
period of Am.erican history, that is to say, some thirty 
years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod 
Crane; who sojourned, or, as he expressed it ''tarried," 
in Sleepy Hollow for the purpose of instructing the no 
children of the vicinity. He was a native of Connecti- 
cut, a State which supplies the Union with pioneers for 
the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth yearly 
its legions of frontier woodmen and country school- 
masters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable ns 
to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with 
narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled 
a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served 
for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung 
together. His head was small, and flat at top, with 120 
huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, 
so that it looked like a weathercock perched upon his 

8. " Remote period." Thirty years was considered a long 
time in the dull life of that neighborhood. 



16 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see 
him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, 
with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one 125 
might have mistaken him for the genius of famine 
descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped 
from a cornfield. 

9. His school-house was a low building of one large 
room, rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly 130 
glazed, and partly patched with leaves of copy-books. 

It was most ingeniously secured at vacant hours by 
a withe twisted in the handle of the door, and stakes set 
against the window-shutters ; so that, though a thief 
might get in with perfect ease, he would find some em- 135 
barrassment in getting out, — an idea most probably bor- 
rowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten, from the 
mystery of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a 
rather lonely but pleasant situation, just at the foot of a 
woody hill, with a brook running close by, and a for- no 
midable birch-tree growing at one end of it. From 
hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, conning over 
their lessons, might be heard on a drowsy summer's 
day, like the hum of a beehive ; interrupted now and 
then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the tone U5 
of menace or command ; or, peradventure, by the appall- 
ing sound of the birch as he urged some tardy loiterer 
along the flowery path of knowledge. Truth to say, he 
was a conscientious man, that ever bore in mind the 
golden maxim, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." 150 
Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not spoiled. 

10. I would not have it imagined, however, that he 
was one of those cruel potentates of the school who joy 

9. Formidable Birch-Tree. Formidable because the switches 
were tough and conveniently near the schoolhouse. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 17 

in the smart of their subjects ; on the contrary, he 
administered justice with discrimination rather than 155 
severity, taking the burthen off the backs of the weak 
and la3'ing it on those of the strong. Your mere puny 
stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, 
was passed hj with indulgence ; but the claims of justice 
were satisfied b}^ inflicting a double portion on some little leo 
tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who 
sulked and swelled and grew dogged and sullen beneath 
the birch. All this he called '' doing his duty by their 
parents " ; and he never inflicted a chastisement with- 
out following it by the assurance, so consolatory to theies 
smarting urchin, that "he would remember it and 
thank him for it the longest day he had to live." 

11. When school-hours were over, he was even the 
companion and playmate of the larger boys ; and on 
holiday afternoons would convoy some of the smaller 170 
ones home, who happened to have pretty sisters, or 
good housewives for mothers, noted for the comforts of 
the cupboard. Indeed, it behooved him to keep on 
good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from 
his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufii- 175 
cient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge 
feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of 
an anaconda ; but to help out his maintenance, he was, 
according to country custom in those parts, boarded and 
lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he iso 
instructed. With these he lived successively a week at 

a time ; thus going the rounds of the neighborhood, with 
all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief. 

12. That all this might not be too onerous on 

11. Comforts of the Cupboard. Plenty of good things to 
eat. 



18 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt toiss 
consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and 
schoolmasters as mere drones, he had various ways of 
rendering himself both useful and agreeable. He 
assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of 
their farms, helped to make hay, mended the fences, 190 
took the horses to water, drove the cows from pasture, 
and cut wood for the winter fire. He laid aside, too, 
all the dominant dignity and absolute sway with which 
he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and be- 
came wonderfully gentle and ingratiating. He found 195 
favor in the eyes of the mothers by petting the children, 
particularly the youngest ; and like the lion bold, which 
whilom so magnanimouslj^ the lamb did hold, he 
would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle 
with his foot for whole hours together. 200 

13. In addition to his other vocations, he was the 
singing-master of the neighborhood, and picked up many 
bright shillings by instructing the young folks in psalm- 
ody. It was a matter of no little vanity to him, on Sun- 
days, to take his station in front of the church gallery, 205 
with a band of chosen singers ; where, in his own mind, 
he completely carried away the palm from the parson. 
Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of 
the congregation ; and there are peculiar quavers still to 
be heard in that church, and which may even be heard 210 
half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill- 
pond, on a still Sunday morning, which are said to be 

12. Lorded it in his little empire. Ichabod was very cross 
in the school-room, but was wonderfully gentle with the parents 
in order that he may always be welcome to their homes. 

13. Carried away the paim. In his own opinion, Ichabod 
beat the minister singing. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 19 

legitimately descended from the nose of Ichabod Crane. 
Thus, by divers little makeshifts, in that ingenious way 
which is commonly denominated ^' by hook and by 215 
crook," the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, 
and was thought, by all w^ho understood nothing of the 
labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully easy life of it. 

14. The schoolmaster is generally a man of some im- 
portance in the female circle of a rural neighborhood, 220 
being considered a kind of idle, gentlemanlike personage, 
of vastly superior taste and accomplishments to the rough 
country swains, and, indeed, inferior in learning only to 
the parson. His appearance, therefore, is apt to occasion 
some little stir at the tea-table of a farmhouse, and the 225 
addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes or sweetmeats, 
or, perad venture, the parade of a silver teapot. Our man 
of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the smiles 
of all the country damsels. How he would figure among 
them in the churchyard, between services on Sundays ! 230 
gathering grapes for them from the wild vines that over- 
ran the surrounding trees ; reciting for their amusement 
all the epitaphs on the tombstones ; or sauntering, with 

a whole bevy of them, along the banks of the adjacent 
mill-pond; while the more bashful country bumpkins 235 
hung sheepishly back, envying his superior elegance and 
address. 

15. From his half-itinerant life, also, he was a kind 
of travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local 

13. Legitimately descended, etc. The quavers are " legit- 
imately descended " because they still retain enough of Ichabod's 
nasal twang to be recognized at once as belonging to him. 

15. Half=itinerant life. Ichabod moved from place to place 
in the neighborhood, and thus knew what each family was doing. 
He was, therefore, a local news-carrier, and was looked for much 
as we watch for the evening paper. 



20 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

gossip from house to house, so that his appearance was 240 
always greeted with satisfaction. He was, moreover, 
esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for 
he had read several books quite through, and was a per- 
fect master of Cotton Mather's History of New England 
Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and 245 
potently believed. 

16. He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewd- 
ness and simple credulity. His appetite for the mar- 
vellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally 
extraordinary ; and both had been increased by his resi- 250 
dence in this spellbound region. No tale was too gross 
or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often 
his delight, after his school was dismissed in the after- 
noon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover border- 
ing the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, 255 
and there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the 
gathering dusk of evening made the printed page a mere 
mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way by 
swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farm- 
house where he happened to be quartered, every sound of 260 
nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imag- 
ination, — the moan of the whippoorwill from the hillside, 
the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm, 
the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or the sudden rus- 

15. Cotton Mather (math' er) was a very learned New England 
minister. He was born in Boston, Feb. 12, 1662. As a boy, he 
was unusually determined and broke himself from stammering 
by forcing himself to speak with great deliberation. He was a 
hard worker and wrote books in many languages. Like most 
people of his time he believed in witchcraft and wrote many 
thrilling tales about witches. He was honest in his belief and 
caused many innocent people to suffer through his unfortunate 
delusion. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 21 

tling in the thicket of birds frightened from their roost. 265 
The fireflies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the 
darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of 
uncommon brightness would stream across his path ; and 
if by chance a huge blockhead of a beetle came winging 
his blundering flight against him, the poor varlet was 270 
ready to give up the ghost, with the idea that he was 
struck with a witch's token. His only resource on such 
occasions, either to drown thought or drive away evil 
spirits, was to sing psalm-tunes ; and the good people of 
Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors of an evening, 275 
were often filled with awe at hearing his nasal melod}^, 
^' in linked sweetness long drawn out," floating from the 
distant hill or along the dusky road. 

17. Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was to 
pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wiv< s, as28o 
they sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roast- 
ing and spluttering along the hearth, and listen to their 
marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted fields, 
and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted 
houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, or 255 
Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as the}^ sometimes 
called him. He would delight them equally by his anec- 
dotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and por- 
tentous sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in 
the earlier times of Connecticut ; and wo aid frighten 290 
them wofully with speculations upon comets and shoot- 
ing stars ; and with the alarming fact that the world did 
absolutely turn round, and that they were half the time 
topsy-turvy ! 

17. Fearful pleasure. *' Fearful" because Ichabod knew 
that he must suffer ou his homeward journey for the pleasure of 
tellinor ghost stories to the Dutch wives. 



22 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

18. But if there was a pleasure in all this, while295 
snugly cuddling in the chimney-corner of a chamber that 
was all of a ruddy glow from the crackling wood-fire, 
and where, of course, no spectre dared to show its face, 

it was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent 
walk homewards. What fearful shapes and shadows 300 
beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a 
snowy night ! With what wistful look did he eye every 
trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields 
from some distant window ! How often was he appalled 
by some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted 305 
spectre, beset his very path ! How often did he shrink 
with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on the 
frosty crust beneath his feet, and dread to look over his 
shoulder, lest he should behold some uncouth being 
tramping close behind him ! and how often was he thrown 310 
into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling 
among the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping 
Hessian on one of his nightly scourings ! 

19. All these, however, were mere terrors of the 
night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness ; 3i5 
and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and 
been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in 
his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put an end to 
all these evils ; and he would have passed a pleasant 
life of it, in despite of the devil and all his works, if his 320 
path had not been crossed by a being that causes more 
perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the 
whole race of witches put together, and that was — a 
woman. 

20. Among the musical disciples who assembled one 325 

18. Sheeted spectre. Ghosts were supposed to come forth 
from the graveyard with shrouds or sheets wrapped around them. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 23 

evening in each week to receive his instructions in 
psalmody, was Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and 
only child of a substantial Dutch farmer. She was a 
blooming lass of fresh eighteen ; plump as a partridge, 
ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father's 330 
peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her 
beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a 
little of a coquette, as might be perceived even in her 
dress, which was a mixture of ancient and modern fash- 
ions, as mosc suited to set off her charms. She wore the S35 
ornaments of pure yellow gold which her great-great- 
grandmother had brought over from Saardam; the 
tempting stomacher of the olden time, and withal a 
provokingly short petticoat, to display the prettiest foot 
and ankle in the country round. 34o 

21. Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart 
towards the sex ; and it is not to be wondered at that 
so tempting a morsel soon found favor in his eyes, — 
more especially after he had visited her in her paternal 
mansion. Old Baltus Yan Tassel was a perfect pic- 345 
ture of a thriving, contented, liberal-hearted farmer. 
He seldom, it is true, sent either his eyes or thoughts 
beyond the boundaries of his own farm ; but within these 
everything was snug, happy, and well-conditioned. He 
was satisfied with his wealth, but not proud of it ; and35o 
piqued himself upon the hearty abundance, rather than 
the style in which he lived. His stronghold was situated 
on the banks of the Hudson, in one of those green, shel- 
tered, fertile nooks in which the Dutch farmers are so fond 

20. Her vast expectations. The large amount of property 
she expected to inherit on the death of her father. 

20. Saardam, also spelled Zaandam. A town in North Hol- 
land, on the Zaan river. 



24 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

of nestling. A great elm-tree spread its broad branches 355 
over it, at the foot of which bubbled up a spring of the 
softest and sweetest water, in a little well formed of a 
barrel, and then stole sparkling away through the grass, 
to a neighboring brook, that bubbled along among 
alders and dwarf willows. Hard by the farmhouse was 38o 
a vast barn, that might have served for a church, every 
window and crevice of which seemed bursting forth 
with the treasures of the farm ; the flail was busily 
resounding within it from morning to night ; swallovv^s 
and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves ; and 355 
rows of pigeons, some with one eye turned up, as if 
watching the weather, some with their heads under 
their wings, or buried in their bosoms, and others, 
swelling, and cooing, and bowing about their dames, 
were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. Sleek unwieldly 37o 
porkers were grunting in the repose and abundance of 
their pens, whence sallied forth, now and then, troops 
of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. A stately squad- 
ron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond, 
convoying whole fleets of ducks ; regiments of turkeys 875 
were gobbling through the farmyard, and guinea-fowls 
fretting about it like ill-tempered housewives, with their 
peevish, discontented cry. Before the barn-door strut- 
ted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, a war- 
rior, and a fine gentleman, clapping his burnished wings, sso 
and crowing in the pride and gladness of his heart — 
sometimes tearing up the earth with his feet, and then 

21. Alders, slender, graceful trees resembling poplars. 

21. Flail, an implement for threshing out gram by beating. 
It consists of two wooden bars joined loosely together so that 
one end may be used as a handle bar while the other serves as a 
swingle with ^hich to strike the grain. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 25 

generously calling his ever-hungry family of wives and 
children to enjoy the rich morsel which he had discov- 
ered. 385 

22. The pedagogue's mouth watered as he looked 
upon his sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In 
his devouring mind's eye he pictured to himself every 
roasting-pig running about with a pudding in its belly, 
and an apple in its mouth ; the pigeons were snugly put s9o 
to bed in a comfortable pie, and tucked in with a cover- 
let of crust; the geese were swimming in their own 
gravy, and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like snug 
married couples, with a decent competency of onion 
sauce. In the porkers he saw carved out the future 395 
sleek side of bacon and the juicy relishing ham ; not a 
turkey but he beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard 
under its wing, and, peradventure, a necklace of sav- 
ory sausages ; and even bright chanticleer himself lay 
sprawling on his back in a side-dish, with uplifted 400 
claws, as if craving that quarter which his chivalrous 
spirit disdained to ask while living. 

23. As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and 
as he rolled his great green eyes over the fat meadow- 
lands, the rich fields of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat and 405 
Indian corn, and the orchards burthened with ruddy 
fruit which surrounded the warm tenement of Van Tassel, 
his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit 
these domains, and his imagination expanded with the 
idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, and 410 
the money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and 

22. In his devouring mind's eye, etc. Ichabod was always 
looking for something good to eat, and his imagination instantly 
pictured the many good dishes which might be prepared from 
the various products of the Van Tassel farm. 



26 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

shingle palaces in the wilderness. IS'ay, his busy fancy 
already realized his hopes^ and presented to him the 
blooming Katrina, with a whole family of children, 
mounted on the top of a wagon loaded with household 415 
trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling beneath ; and 
he beheld himself bestriding a pacing mare, with a colt 
at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the 
Lord knows where. 

24. When he entered the house the conquest of his 420 
heart was complete. It was one of those spacious farm- 
houses, with high-ridged, but lowly-sloping roofs, built in 
the style handed down from the first Dutch settlers ; the 
low, projecting eaves forming a piazza along the front, 
capable of being closed up in bad weather. Under this 425 
were hung flails, harness, various utensils of husbandry, 
and nets for fishing in the neighboring river. Benches 
were built along the sides for summer use ; and a great 
spinning-wheel at one end, and a churn at the other, 
showed the various uses to which this important porch 430 
might be devoted. From this piazza the wondering 
Ichabod entered the hall, which formed the center of the 
mansion and the place of usual residence. Here, rows 
of resplendent pewter, ranged on a long dresser, dazzled 
his eyes. In one corner stood a huge bag of wool ready 435 
to be spun ; in another a quantity of linsey-woolsey just 
from the loom ; ears of Indian corn, and strings of dried 
apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the wall, 
mingled with the gaud of red peppers ; and a door left 
ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor, where the440 
claw-footed chairs and dark mahogany tables shone like 
mirrors ; andirons, with their accompanying shovel and 
tongs, glistened from their covert of asparagus tops ; 
mock oranges and conch-shells decorated the mantel- 
piece ; strings of various-colored bird's-eggs were sus- 445 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 27 

pended above it ; a great ostrich egg was hung from the 
center of the room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly 
left open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and 
well-mended china. 

25. From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon 450 
these regions of delight, the peace of his mind was at an 
end, and his only study was how to gain the affections of 
the peerless daughter of Van Tassel. In this enterprise, 
however, he had more real diflacuities than generally 
fell to the lot of a knight-errant of yore, who seldom 455 
had anything but giants, enchanters, fiery dragons, and 
such like easily conquered adversaries, to contend with ; 
and had to make his way merely through gates of iron 
and brass, and walls of adamant, to the castle keep, 
where the lady of his heart was confined, — all which 460 
he achieved as easily as a man would carve his way to 
the centre of a Christmas pie ; and then the lady gave 
him her hand as a matter of course. Ichabod, on the 
contrary, had to win his way to the heart of a country 
coquette, beset with a labyrinth of whims and caprices, 465 
which were forever presenting new difficulties and im- 
pediments ; and he had to encounter a host of fearful 
adversaries of real flesh and blood, the numerous rustic 
admirers who beset every portal to her heart, keeping a 
watchful and angry eye upon each other, but ready to 470 
fly out in the common cause against any new com- 
petitor. 

26. Among these the most formidable was a burly, 
roaring, roistering blade, of the name of Abraham, or, 
according to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van Brunt, ^75 

25. Knight=errant. A wandering knight of the middle ages 
who went forth in search of adventure, usually preferring to fight 
in defense of some lady's honor. 



28 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

the hero of the country round, which rang with his feats 
of strength and hardihood. He was broad-shouldered 
and double-jointed, with short, curly black hair, and a 
bluff but not unpleasant countenance, having a mingled 
air of fun and arrogance. From his herculean frame 480 
and great powers of limb, he had received the nickname 
of Brom Bones, by which he was universally known. 
He was famed for great knowledge and skill in horse- 
manship, being as dextrous on horseback as a Tartar. 
He was foremost at all races and cock-fights ; and, with ^85 
the ascendency which bodily strength always acquires 
in rustic life, was the umpire in all disputes, setting his 
hat on one side, and giving his decisions with an air and 
tone admitting of no gainsay or appeal. He was al ways 
ready for either a fight or a frolic ; had more mischief 190 
than ill-will in his composition ; and with all his overbear- 
ing roughness, there was a strong dash of waggish good- 
humor at bottom. He had three or four boon compan- 
ions, who regarded him as their model, and at the head of 
whom he scoured the countr}^, attending every scene of 495 
feud or merriment for miles round. In cold weather he 
was distinguished by a fur cap, surmounted with a flaunt- 
ing fox's tail ; and when the folks at a country gathering 
descried this well-known crest at a distance, whisking 

26. Blads, a fast young man. Not a very complimentary 
term. 

26. Herculean frame, having the frame of Hercules, a 
mythological iiero of Greece. Hercules is regarded as the 
founder of the Olympian games. These games consisted of 
athletic sports, and were held every four years at Olympia. 

26. Tartar, a fierce horseman of Central Asia. 

26. Don Cossacks, a fierce and warlike people resembling 
Russians, and particularly noted as great horsemen. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 29 

about among a squad of hard riders, they always stood 500 
by for a squall. Sometimes his crew would be heard 
dashing along past the farmhouses at midnight, with 
whoop and halloo, like a troop of Don Cossacks ; and 
the old dames, startled out of their sleep, would listen 
for a moment till the hurry scurry had clattered by, and 505 
then exclaim, '' Aye, there goes Brom Bones and his 
gang! " The neighbors looked upon him with a mix- 
ture of awe, admiration, and good- will ; and when any 
madcap prank or rustic brawl occurred in the vicinity, 
always shook their heads, and warranted Brom Bones 510 
was at the bottom of it. 

27. This rantipole hero had for some time singled out 
the blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gal- 
lantries ; and though his amorous toyings were some- 
thing like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear, 515 
yet it was whispered that she did not altogether discour- 
age his hopes. Certain it is his advances were signals 
for rival candidates to retire, who felt no inclination to 
cross a lion in his amours ; insomuch that, when his 
horse was seen tied to Van Tassel's paling on a Sunday 520 
night, a sure sign that his master was courting, or, as it 

is termed, '' sparking," within, all other suitors passed 
by in despair, and carried the war into other quarters. 

28. Such was the formidable rival with whom Icha- 
bod Crane had to contend, and, considering all things, a 525 
stouter man than he would have shrunk from the com- 
petition, and a wiser man would have despaired. He 
had, however, a happy mixture of pliability and perse- 
verance in his nature : he was in form and spirit like a 
supple-jack, — yielding, but tough; though he bent, he 530 
never broke ; and though he bowed beneath the slight- 
est pressure, yet, the moment it was away — jerk ! he was 
as erect, and carried his head as high as ever. 



30 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, 

29. To have taken the field openly against his rival 
would have been madness ; for he was not a man to be 535 
thwarted in his amours, any more than that stormy 
lover, Achilles. Ichabod, therefore, made his advances 
in a quiet and gently insinuating manner. Under cover 
of his character of singing-master, he made frequent 
visits at the farmhouse; not that he had anything to 540 
apprehend from the meddlesome interference of parents, 
which is so often a stumbling-block in the path of lovers. 
Bait Van Tassel was an easy, indulgent soul ; he loved 
his daughter better even than his pipe, and like a rea- 
sonable man and an excellent father, let her have her 545 
way in everything. His notable little wife, too, had 
enough to do to attend to her housekeeping and man- 
age the poultry ; for, as she sagely observed, ducks and 
geese are foolish things, and must be looked after, but 
girls can take care of themselves. Thus, while the busy 550 
dame bustled about the house, or plied her spinning 
wheel at one end of the piazza, honest Bait would sit 
smoking his evening pipe at the other, watching the 
achievements of a little wooden warrior, who, armed 
with a sword in each hand, was most valiantly fighticg 555 
the wind on the pinnacle of the barn. In the meantime 
Ichabod would carry on his suit with the daughter by 
the side of the spring under the great elm, or sauntering 
along in the twilight, that hour so favorable to the 
lover's eloquence. seo 

29. Achilles (a chil'les), the hereof Homer's Iliad. He was 
supposed to have been dipped into the river Styx by his mother, 
which rendered him invulnerable in all parts of the body except 
the heel. His mother held him by the heel while she dipped 
him into the water, and thus his heel did not get wet. In conse- 
quence of this, Achilles could be wounded in the heel the same 
as ordinary people, but the remainder of his body could not be 
injured. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 31 

30. I profess not to know how women's hearts are 
woed and won. To me they have always been matters 
of riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one 
vulnerable point, or door of access ; while others have a 
thousand avenues, and may be captured in a thousand 555 
different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain 
the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to 
maintain possession of the latter ; for a man must bat- 
tle for his fortress at every door and window. He who 
wins a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to 570 
some renown ; but he who keeps undisputed sway over 
the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero. Certain it is this 
was not the case with the redoubtable Brom Bones ; and 
from the moment Ichabod Crane made his advances, the 
interests of the former evidently declined : his horse was 575 
no longer seen tied at the palings on Sunday nights, and 

a deadly feud gradually arose between him and the pre- 
ceptor of Sleepy Hollow. 

31. Brom, who had a degree of rough chivalry in his 
nature, would fain have carried matters to open war- sso 
fare, and have settled their pretensions to the lad}^ 
according to the mode of those most concise and simple 
reasoners, the knights-errant of yore, — by single combat ; 
but Ichabod was too conscious of the superior might of 
his adversary to enter the lists against him ; he had 585 
overheard a boast of Bones that he would " double the 
schoolmaster up, and put him on a shelf of his own 
school-house " ; and he was too wary to give him an 
opportunity. There was something extremely provok- 
ing in this obstinately pacific system; it left Brom no 590 
alternative but to draw upon the funds of rustic waggery 

31. Enter the lists, etc. Knights of the middle ages would 
enter enclosed arenas, or lists, and fight by charging each other 
on horseback from opposite ends of the arena. 



32 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, 

iu his disposition, and to play off boorish practical jokes 
upon his rival. Ichabod became the object of whim- 
sical persecution to Bones and his gang of rough-riders. 
They harried his hitherto peaceful domains, smoked out 595 
his singing-school by stopping up the chimney, broke 
into the school-house at night, in spite of its formidable 
fastenings of withe and window stakes, and turned 
everything topsy-turvey, so that the poor school-master 
began to think all the witches in the country held their eoo 
meetings there. But what was still more annoying, 
Brom took all opportunities of turning him into ridicule 
in the presence of his mistress, and had a scoundrel dog 
whom he taught to whine in the most ludicrous manner, 
and introduced as a rival of Ichabod's to instruct her in 605 
psalmody. 

32. In this way matters went on for some time, 
without producing any material effect on the relative 
situation of the contending powers. On a fine autumnal 
afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on eio 
the lofty stool whence he usually watched all the con- 
cerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he swayed a 
ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of jus- 
tice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant 
terror to evil-doers ; while on the desk before him might 615 
be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited wea- 
pons, detected upon the persons of idle urchins, such as 
half-munched apples, pop-guns, whirligigs, fly-cages, 
and whole legions of rampant little paper game-cocks. 
Apparently there had been some appalling act of justice 620 
recently inflicted, for his scholars were all busily intent 
upon their books, or slyly whispering behind them with 

32. Tow=cIoth, a kind of cloth made from the coarsest part 
of flax or hemp. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 33 

one eye kept upon the master, and a kind of buzzing 
stillness reigned throughout the school-room. It was 
suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro, in 625 
tow-cloth jacket and trousers, a round-crowned frag- 
ment of a hat, like the cap of Mercury, and mounted on 
the back of a ragged, wild, half-broken colt, which he 
managed with a rope by way of halter. He came 
clattering up to the school-door, with an invitation 630 
to Ichabod to attend a merry-making, or '' quilting- 
frolic," to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tas- 
sel's ; and having delivered his message with that air of 
importance and effort at fine language which a negro is 
apt to display on petty embassies of the kind, he dashed 635 
over the brook, and was seen scampering away up the 
Hollow, full of the importance and hurry of his mission. 
33. All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet 
school-room. The scholars were hurried through their 
lessons without stopping at trifles ; those who were nim- 640 
ble skipped over half with impunity, and those who were 
tardy had a smart application now and then in the rear, 
to quicken their speed or help them over a tall word. 
Books were flung aside without being put away on the 
shelves; inkstands were overturned, benches thrown 645 
down, and the whole school was turned loose an hour 
before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of 

32. Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and is represented 
as wearing a close-fitting cap with wings attached to the sides. 
The Negro boy probably had the sides of his cap turned under in 
such a manner as to give it the appearance of wings. 

32. Mynheer. A title used by the Dutch people the same as 
we use Mister. We would say " Mr. Van Tassel." 

33. A tall word is here used to mean words of unusual 
length or use. Beyond the ordinary. 



34 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

young imps, yelping and racketing about the green in 
joy at their early emancipation. 

34. The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra eso 
half-hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his 
best, and, indeed, only suit of rusty black, and arrang- 
ing his locks by a bit of broken looking-glass that hung 
up in the school-house. That he might make his appear- 
ance before his mistress in the true style of a cavalier, 655 
he borrowed a horse from the farmer with whom he was 
domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman of the name of 
Hans Van Eipper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued 
forth like a knight-errant in quest of adventures. But it is 
meet I should, in the true spirit of romantic story, give^eo 
some account of the looks and equipments of my hero 
and his steed. The animal he bestrode was a broken- 
down plough-horse, that had outlived almost everything 
but his viciousness. He was gaunt and shagged, with a 
ewe neck, and a head like a hammer ; his rusty mane ees 
and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs ; one eye 
had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral ; but the 
other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. Still he 
must have had fire and metal in his day, if we may 
judge from the name he bore of Gunpowder. He had, in 67o 
fact, been a favorite steed of his master's, the choleric 
Van Ripper, who was a furious rider, and had infased, 
very probably, some of his own spirit into the animal ; 
for, old and broken down as he looked, there was more 
of the lurking devil in him than in any young filly in 675 
the country. 

35. Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. 
He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees 
nearly up to the pommel of the saddle ; his sharp elbows 

34. Ewe neck. A thin, straight neck, without any arch to it. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 35 

stuck out like grasshoppers'; he carried his whip per- eso 
pendicularly in his hand, like a sceptre, and, as his horse 
jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the 
flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool hat rested on 
the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of forehead 
might be called ; and the skirts of his black coat fluttered ess 
out almost to the horse's tail. Such was the appearance 
of Ichabod and his steed, as they shambled out of the 
gate of Hans Van Ripper, and it was altogether such an 
apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad day- 
light. 690 

36. It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day ; the 
sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and 
golden livery which we always associate with the idea 
of abundance. The forests had put on their sober 
brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind 695 
had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of 
orange, purple and scarlet. Streaming files of wild duqks 
began to make their appearance high in the air ; the 
bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of 
beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the too 
quail at intervals from the neighboring stubble-field. 

37. The small birds were taking their farewell ban- 
quets. In the fullness of their revelry they fluttered, 
chirping and frolicking, from bush to bush and tree to 
tree, capricious from the very profusion and variety 705 
around them. There was the honest cock-robin, the 
favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud, 
querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying 
in sable clouds ; and the golden- winged woodpecker, 
with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, andTio 
splendid plumage ; and the cedar-bird, with its red-tip- 
ped wings and yellow-tipped tail, and its little monteiro 
oap of feathers ; and the blue jay, that noisy coxcomb, 



36 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

in his gay light-blue coat and white underclothes, 
screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and vis 
bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every 
songster of the grove. 

38. As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, 
ever open to every symptom of culinary abundance, 
ranged with delight over the treasures of jolly autumn. 720 
On all sides he beheld vast stores of apples, some hang- 
ing in oppressive opulence on the trees, some gathered 
into baskets and barrels for the market, others heaped 
up in rich piles for the cider-press. Farther on he be- 
held great fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears 725 
peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the 
promise of cakes and hasty-pudding; and the yellow 
pumpkins lying beneath them, turning up their fair 
round bellies to the sun, and giving ample prospects of 
the most luxurious of pies ; and anon he passed the fra- 73o 
grant buckwheat-fields, breathing the odor of the bee- 
hive, and as he beheld them, soft anticipations stole over 
his mind of dainty slap-jacks, well buttered, and gar- 
nished with honey or treacle, by the delicate little 
dimpled hand of Katrina Van Tassel. 735 

39. Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts 
and " sugared suppositions," he journeyed along the 
sides of a range of hills which look out upon some of the 
goodliest scenes of the mighty Hudson. The sun grad- 
ually wheeled his broad disk down into the west. The 74a 
wide bosom of the Tappan Zee lay motionless and 
glassy, except that here and there a gentle undulation 
waved and prolonged the blue shadow of the distant 

37. Monteiro, a cap, formerly worn by huntsmen, having a 
round crown with flaps. The word is not now in use. 

38. Slap-jacks, flat batter cakes cooked over a griddle. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 37 

mountain. A few amber clouds floated in the sky, with- 
out a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of 745 
a fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pare apple 
green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid- 
heaven. A slanting ray lingered on the woody crests of 
the precipices that overhung some parts of the river, 
giving greater depth to the dark-gray and purple of75o 
their rocky sides. A sloop was loitering in the distance, 
dropping slowly down with the tide, her sail hanging 
uselessly against the mast ; and as the reflection of the 
sky gleamed along the still water, it seemed as if the 
vessel was suspended in the air. 755 

40. It was toward evening that Ichabod arrived at 
the castle of the Herr Van Tassel, which he found 
thronged with the pride and flower of the adjacent 
country : old farmers, a spare, leathern-faced race, in 
homespun coats and breeches, blue stockings, huge shoes, 760 
and magnificent pewter buckles ; their brisk withered 
little dames, in close crimped caps, long-waisted gowns, 
homespun petticoats, with scissors and pincushions, and 
gay calico pockets hanging on the outside ; buxom lasses, 
almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where 765 
a straw hat, a fine ribband, or perhaps a white frock, 
gave symptoms of city innovation ; the sons, in short 
square-skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass 
buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion 
of the times, especially if they could procure an eel-skin 770 
for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the coun- 
try as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair, 

41. Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, 
having come to the gathering on his favorite steed Dare- 

40. Herr Van Tassel. Herr ia a German title of address, 
equivalent to our English " Mister." 



88 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

devil, a creature, like himself, full of mettle and mischief, 775 
and which no one but himself could manage. He was, 
in fact, noted for preferring vicious animals, given to all 
kinds of tricks, which kept the rider in constant risk of 
his neck ; for he held a tractable, well-broken horse as 
unworthy of a lad of spirit. 78o 

42. Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of 
charms that burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero 
as he entered the state parlor of Van Tassel's mansion, — 
not those of the bevy of buxom lasses, with their lux- 
urious display of red and white, but the ample charms 785 
of a genuine Dutch country tea-table, in the sumptuous 
time of autumn. Such heaped-up platters of cakes of 
various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to 
experienced Dutch housewives ! There was the doughty 
doughnut, the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and 790 
crumbling cruller ; sweet-cakes and short-cakes, ginger- 
cakes and honey-cakes, and the whole family of cakes. 
And then there were apple-pies and peach-pies and pump- 
kin-pies ; besides slices of ham and smoked beef ; and, 
moreover, delectable dishes of preserved plums, and 795 
peaches and pears and quinces, not to mention broiled 
shad and roasted chickens, together with bowls of milk 
and cream, all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty much 
as I have enumerated them, with the motherly teapot 
sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst — Heaven soo 
bless the mark ! I want breath and time to discuss this 
banquet as it deserves, and am too eager to get on with 
my story. Happily, Ichabod Crane was not in so great 

a hurry as his historian, but did ample justice to every 
dainty. sos 

43. He was a kind and thankful creature, whose 
heart dilated in proportion as his skin was filled with 
good cheer, and whose spirits rose with eating as some 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 39 

men's do with drink. He could not help, too, rolling his 
large eyes round him as he ate, and chuckling with the 
possibility that he might one day be lord of all this scene sio 
of almost unimaginable luxury and splendor. Then he 
thought how soon he'd turn his back upon the old school- 
house, snap his fingers in the face of Hans \"an Ripper 
and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant 
pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him sis 
comrade. 

44. Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his 
guests with a face dilated with content and good-humor, 
round and jolly as the harvest moon. His hospitable 
attentions were brief, but expressive, being confined to 820 
a shake of the hand, a slap on the shoulder, a loud 
laugh, and a pressing invitation to '' fail to, and help 
themselves." 

45. And now the sound of the music from the com- 
mon room or hall summoned to the dance. The musician 825 
was an old gray-headed negro, who had been the itinerant 
orchestra of the neighborhood for more than half a cen- 
tury. His instrument was as old and battered as him- 
self. The greater part of the time he scraped away on 
two or three strings, accompanying every movement of 830 
the bow with a motion of the head, bowing almost to 
the ground and stamping with his foot whenever a fresh 
couple were to start. 

46. Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much 
as upon his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about 835 
him was idle ; and to have seen his loosely hung frame 
in full motion, and clattering about the room, you would 
have thought St. Vitus himself, that blessed patron of 
the dance, was figuring before j^ou in person. He was 

45. Itinerant orchestra, traveling musician. 



40 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

the admiration of all the negroes, who, having gathered, 840 
of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighbor- 
hood, stood forming a pyramid of shining black faces at 
every door and window, gazing with delight at the scene, 
rolling their white eyeballs, and showing grinning rows 
of ivory from ear to ear. How could the flogger of 845 
urchins be otherwise than animated and joyous ! The 
lady of his heart was his partner in the dance, and 
smiling graciously in reply to all his amorous oglings ; 
while Brom Bones, sorely smitten with love and jealousy, 
sat brooding by himself in one corner. sso 

47. "When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was 
attracted to a knot of the sager folks, who, with old 
Van Tassel, sat smoking at one end of the piazza, 
gossiping over former times, and drawing out long stories 
about the war. 855 

48. This neighborhood, at the time of which I am 
speaking, was one of those highly favored places which 
abound with chronicle and great men. The British and 
American line had run near it during the war ; it had, 
therefore, been the scene of marauding, and infested seo 
with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of border chivalry. 
Just sufi&cient time had elapsed to enable each story- 
teller to dress up his tale with a little becoming fiction, 

46. St. Vitus was baptized without the knowledge of his 
father, who became very angry on hearing of it. Everything 
possible was done to make the young man return to the pagan 
religion, but all in vain. As a last resort he was cast into prison. 
While the boy was still in prison his father looked through a 
chink in the wall and beheld his son dancing with seven beau- 
tiful angels. The sight so dazzled his father's eyes that he 
became blind, and was only restored to his sight through the 
intercession of St. Vitus, who became the patron Saint of 
dancers. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 41 

and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make 
himself the hero of every exploit. 865 

49. There was the story of Doffae Martling, a large 
blue-bearded Dutchman, who had nearly taken a British 
frigate with an old iron nine-pounder from a mud breast- 
work, only that his gun burst at the sixth discharge, 
and there was an old gentleman who shall be nameless, 870 
being too rich a mynheer to be lightly mentioned, who, 
in the battle of White Plains, being an excellent master 
of defence, parried a musket-ball with a small sword, 
insomuch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the blade, 
and glance ofi" at the hilt ; in proof of which he was 875 
ready at any time to show the sword, with the hilt a 
little bent. There were several more that had been 
equally great in the field, not one of whom but was per- 
suaded that he had a considerable hand in bringing the 
war to a happy termination. sso 

50. But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts 
and apparitions that succeeded. The neighborhood is 
rich in legendary treasures of the kind. Local tales 
and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered long- 
settled retreats ; but are trampled under foot by the 885 
shifting throng that forms the population of most of our 
country places. Besides, there is no encouragement for 
ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely 
had time to finish their first nap, and turn themselves 
in their graves, before their surviving friends havesw 

48. Cow-boys. At that time used to denote marauding bands 
of men who professed to support the cause of England in the 
Kevolutionary War, but who in reahty robbed both sides as 
opportunity offered. The word cow-boy is now used to denote 
a horseman of the frontier who rides after cattle. 

49. White Plains, the scene of a battle between the English 
and Americans during the Revolutionary War. 



42 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, 

travelled away from the neighborhood ; so that when 
they turn out at night to walk their rounds, they have 
no acquaintance left to call upon. This is perhaps the 
reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts, except in our 
long-established Dutch communities. 895 

51. The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence 
of supernatural stories in these parts, was doubtless 
owing to the vicinity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a 
contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted 
region ; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and 90o 
fancies infecting all the land. Several of the Sleepy 
Hollow people were present at Van Tassel's, and, as 
usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. 
Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains, and 
mourning cries and wailings heard and seen about the 905 
great tree where the unfortunate Major Andre was taken, 
and which stood in the neighborhood. Some mention 
was made also of the woman in white that haunted the 
dark glen at Eaven Rock, and was ofter heard to shriek 
on winter nights before a storm, having perished there 9io 
in the snow. The chief part of the stories, however, 
turned upon the favorite spectre of Sleepy Hollow, the 
headless horseman, who had been heard several times 
of late, patrolling the country, and, it was said, tethered 
his horse nightly among the graves in the churchyard. 9i5 

51. riajor Andre. A major in the British army, who was 
caught while carrying dispatches between Benedict Arnold and 
the British General, Sir Henry Clinton; Arnold had turned traitor 
to the American cause and was trying to deliver West Point, a 
strong American fortress on the Hudson river, to the British. 
Andre was tried by a military commission and hanged as spy. 
Arnold joined the British army and went to England at the close 
of the war, where he lived the life of an outcast and, in 1801, 
died the miserable death of a traitor. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 43 

52. The sequestered situation of this church seems 
always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled 
spirits. It stands on a knoll surrounded by locust-trees 
and lofty elms, from among which its decent whitewashed 
walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity beam- 920 
ing through the shades of retirement. A gentle slope 
descends from it to a silver sheet of water, bordered by 
high trees, between which peeps may be caught at the 
blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its grass-grown 
yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one 925 
would think that there at least the dead might rest in 
peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody 
dell, along which raves a large brook among broken 
rocks and trunks of fallen trees. Over a deep black part 
of the stream, not far from the church, w^as formerly 930 
thrown a wooden bridge ; the road that led to it, and 
the bridge itself, were thickly shaded by overhanging 
trees, which cast a gloom about it, even in the daytime, 
but occasioned a fearful darkness at night. Such was 
one of the favorite haunts of the headless horseman, and 935 
the place where he was most frequently encountered. 
The tale was told of old Brouwer, a most heretical dis- 
believer in ghosts, how he met the horseman returning 
from his foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to 
get up behind him ; how they galloped over bush and 940 
brake, over hill and swamp, until they reached the 
bridge; when the horseman suddenly turned into a 
skeleton, threw old Brouwer into the brook, and sprang 
away over the tree-tops with a clap of thunder. 

53. This story was immediately matched by a thrice 945 
marvellous adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of 
the Galloping Hessian as an arrant jockey. He afl&rmed 
that, on returning one night from the neighboring village 
of Sing- Sing, he had been overtaken by this midnight 



44 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, 

trooper; that he had offered to race with him for a 950 
bowl of punch, and should have won it too, for Dare- 
devil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but, just as they 
came to the church bridge, the Hessian bolted, and van- 
ished in a flash of fire. 

54. All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone 935 
with which men talk in the dark, the countenances of 
the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam 
from the glare of a pipe, sank deep in the mind of 
Ichabod. He repaid them in kind with large extracts 
from his invaluable author. Cotton Mather, and added 96o 
many marvellous events that had taken place in his 
native State of Connecticut, and fearful sights which 
he had seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow. 

55. The revel now gradually broke up. The old 
farmers gathered together their families in their wagons, 965 
and were heard for some time rattling along the hollow 
roads and over the distant hills. Some of the damsels 
mounted on pillions behind their favorite swains, and 
their light-hearted laughter, mingling with the clatter of 
hoofs, echoed along the silent woodlands, sounding 970 
fainter and fainter until they gradually died away, — 
and the late scene of noise and frolic was all silent and 
deserted. Ichabod only lingered behind, according to 
the custom of country lovers, to have a tete-a-tete with 
the heiress, fully convinced that he was now on the high 975 
road to success. "What passed at this interview I will 
not pretend to say, for in fact I do not know. Some- 
thing, however, I fear me, must have gone wrong, for he 
certainly sallied forth, after no very great interval, with 
an air quite desolate and chop-fallen. O these women ! 98o 
these women ! Could that girl have been playing off 
any of her coquettish tricks ? Was her encouragement 
of the poor pedagogue all a mere sham to secure her 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 45 

conquest of his rival ? Heaven only knows, not I ! Let 
it suffice to say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of one 985 
who had been sacking a hen-roost, rather than a fair 
lady's heart. Without looking to the right or left to 
notice the scene of rural wealth on which he had so 
often gloated, he went straight to the stable, and with 
several hearty cuffs and kicks roused his steed most 990 
uncourteously from the comfortable quarters in which he 
was soundly sleeping, dreaming of mountains of corn 
and oats, and whole valleys of timothy and clover. 

56. It was the very witching-time of night that Icha- 
bod, heavy-hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travels 995 
homewards, along the sides of the lofty hills which rise 
above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so 
cheerily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as 
himself. Far below him the Tappan Zee spread its 
dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and 1000 
there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor 
under the land. In the dead hush of midnight he could 
even hear the barking of the watch-dog from the oppo- 
site shore of the Hudson ; but it was so vague and faint 

as only to give an idea of his distance from this faithful 1005 
companion of man. Now and then, too, the long-drawn 
crowing of a cock, accidentally awakened, would sound 
far, far off, from some farmhouse away among the hills ; 
but it was like a dreaming sound in his ear. No signs of 
life occurred near him, but occasionally the melancholy 1010 
chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of a 
bull-frog from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping 
uncomfortably, and turning suddenly in his bed. 

57. All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had 
heard in the afternoon now came crowding upon hisiois 
recollection. The night grew darker and darker; the 
stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving 



48 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had 
never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, 
approaching the very place where many of the scenes of 1020 
the ghost-stories had been laid. In the centre of the 
road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a 
giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and 
formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled 
and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary 1025 
trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising 
again into the air. It was connected with the tragical 
story of the unfortunate Andre, who had been taken 
prisoner hard by, and was universally known by the 
name of Major Andre's tree. The common people loso 
regarded it with a mixture of respect and superstition, 
partly out of sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred 
namesake, and partly from the tales of strange sights 
and doleful lamentations told concerning it. 

58. As Ichabod approached this fearful tree he began 1035 
to whistle : he thought his whistle was answered ; it 
was but a blast sweeping sharply through the dry 
branches. As he approached a little nearer, he thought 
he saw something white hanging in the midst of the 
tree ; he paused and ceased whistling ; but on looking 1040 
more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where the 
tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood 
laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan, — his teeth chat- 
tered and his knees smote against the saddle ; it was but 
the rubbing of one huge bough upon another, as they were 1045 
swayed about by the breeze. He passed the tree in 
safety, but new perils lay before him. 

59. About two hundred yards from the tree a small 
brook crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and 
thickly wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley's 1050 
Swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 47 

a bridge over this stream. Oa that side of the road 
where the brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and 
chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape-vines, threw a 
cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the 1055 
severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the 
unfortunate Andre was captured, and under the covert 
of those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen 
concealed who surprised him. This has ever since been 
considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings loeo 
of the school-boy who has to pass it alone after dark. 

60. As he approached the stream, his heart began to 
thump ; he summoned up, however, all his resolution, 
gave his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, and 
attempted to dash briskly across the bridge ; but instead 1055 
of starting forward, the perverse old animal made a 
lateral movement, and ran broadside against the fence. 
Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, jerked 
the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the 
contrary foot ; it was all in vain. His steed started, it 1070 
is true ; but it was only to plunge to the opposite side 
of the road into a thicket of brambles and alder-bushes. 
The schoolmaster now bestowed both whip and heel 
upon the starveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed 
forward snuffling and snorting, but came to a stand just 1075 
by the bridge with a suddenness that had nearly sent 
his rider sprawling over his head. Just at this moment 
a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the 
sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the 
grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something loso 
huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, 

60. **Sensitive ear." Ichabod's hearing was unusually keen 
as he was listening to his uttermost in order to catch the first 
sound of an approaching ghost or goblin. 



48 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic 
monster ready to spring upon the traveller. 

61. The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon 
his head with terror. What was to be done ? To turn i085 
and fly was now too late ; and, besides, what chance was 
there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which 
could ride upon the wings of the wind ? Summoning 
up, therefore, a show of courage, he demanded in stam- 
mering accents, '' Who are you ?" He received no reply. io9o 
He repeated his demand in a still more agitated voice. , 
Still there was no answer. Once more he cudgelled the 
sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting his 
eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm- 
tune. Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself 1095 
in motion, and with a scramble and a bound stood at 
once in the middle of the road. Though the night was 
dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown might 
now in some degree be ascertained. He appeared to be 

a horseman of large dimensions, and mounted on a 1100 
black horse of powerful frame. He made no offer of 
molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side of 
the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gun- 
powder, who had now got over his fright and wayward- 
ness. 1105 

62. Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange mid- 
night companion, and bethought himself of the adven- 
ture of Brom Bones with the Galloping Hessian, now 
quickened his steed in hopes of leaving him behind. 
The stranger, however, quickened his horse to an equal mo 
pace. Ichabod pulled up and fell into a walk, thinking 

to lag behind ; the other did the same. His heart began 
to sink within him ; he endeavored to resume his psalm- 
tune, but his parched tongue clave to the roof of his 
mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There wasms 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 49 

sometliing in the moody and dogged silence of this per- 
tinacious companion that was mysterious and appalling. 
It was soon fearfully accounted for. On mounting a 
rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow- 
traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, 1120 
and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on 
perceiving that he was headless ! But his horror was 
still more increased on observing that the head, which 
should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before 
him on the pommel of the saddle ; his terror rose to 1225 
desperation ; he rained a shower of kicks and blows 
upon Gunpowder, hoping by a sudden movement to give 
his companion the slip, but the spectre started full jump 
with him. Away then they dashed, through thick and 
thin, stones flying, and sparks flashing, at every bound. 1130 
Ichabod's flimsy garments fluttered in the air, as he 
stretched his long lank body away over his horse's head 
in the eagerness of his flight. 

63. They had now reached the road which turns ofi" to 
Sleepy Hollow ; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed iiso 
with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an 
opposite turn, and plunged headlong down the hill to 
the left. This road leads through a sandy hollow, 
shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it 
crosses the bridge famous in goblin story; and justiHO 
beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the 
whitewashed church. 

64. As yet the panic of the steed had given his un- 
skilful rider an apparent advantage in the chase ; but 
just as he had got half-way through the hollow, the 1145 
girths of the saddle gave way, and he felt it slipping 
from under him. He seized it by the pommel, and en- 
deavored to hold it firm, but in vain ; and had just time 

to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round the 



50 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

neck, when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it ii5o 
trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the 
terror of Hans Van Ripper's wrath passed across his 
mind, — for it was his Sunday saddle ; — but this was no 
time for petty fears; the goblin was hard on his 
haunches, and ( unskilful rider that he was ! ) he had 1155 
much ado to maintain his seat, sometimes slipping on 
one side, sometimes on the other, and sometimes jolted 
on the high ridge of his horse's backbone with a vio- 
lence that he verily feared would cleave him asunder. 

65. An opening in the trees now cheered him with iieo 
the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The 
wavering reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the 
brook told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the 
walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees 
beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones' ii65 
ghostly competitor had disappeared. '' If I can but 
reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, '' I am safe." 
Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing 
close behind him : he even fancied that he felt his hot 
breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old 1170 
Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge ; he thundered over 
the resounding planks ; he gained the opposite side ; 
and now Ichabod cast a look behind, to see if his pur- 
suer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire 
and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in 1175 
his stirrups and iu the very act of hurling his head at 
him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, 
but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tre- 
mendous crash ; he was tumbled headlong into the dust, 
and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider nso 
passed by like a whirlwind. 

66. The next morning the old horse was found, with- 
out his saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 51 

cropping the grass at his master's gate. Ichabod did 
not make his appearance at breakfast. Dinner-hour uss 
came ; but no Ichabod ! The boys assembled at the 
school-house, and strolled idly about the banks of the 
brook; but no schoolmaster. Hans Van Eipper now 
began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor 
Ichabod and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, ii9o 
and after diligent investigation they came upon his 
traces. In one part of the road leading to the church 
was found the saddle trampled in the dirt ; the tracks of 
horses' hoofs, deeply dented in the road, and evidently 
at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, beyond which 1195 
on the bank of a broad part of the brook where the water 
ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate 
Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin. 

67. The brook was searched, but the body of the 
schoolmaster was not to be discovered. Hans Van 1200 
Ripper, as executor of his estate, examined the bundle 
which contained all his worldly effects. They consisted 
of two shirts and a half, two stocks for the neck, a pair 
or two of worsted stockings, an old pair of corduroy 
small-clothes, a rusty razor, a book of psalm-tunes full 1205 
of dog's ears, and a broken pitch-pipe. As to the books 
and furniture of the school-house, they belonged to th^ 

67. Two shirts and a half. Formerly it was customary to 
have shirt bosoms made separate from the remainder of the gar- 
ment in order that they might be transferred from one shirt to 
another and thus save expense. Ichabod's half-shirt was simply 
a detachable bosom. 

67. Two stocks, etc. Stocks were broad stiffened bands, 
as of cambric, silk, or leather, worn as a cravat. Ichabod's were 
most likely of cambric. 

67. Dog's=ears. Leaves of a book turned down at the cor- 
ner to mark special or favorite pieces. 



52 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

community; excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witch- 
craft, a New England Almanac, and a book of dreams 
and fortune-telling ; in which last was a sheet of foois. 1210 
cap much scribbled and blotted in several fruitless at- 
tempts to make a copy of verses in honor of the heiress 
of Van Tassel. These magic books and the poetic scrawl 
were forthwith consigned to the flames by Hans Van 
Ripper, who from that time forward, determined to send 1215 
his children no more to school, observing that he never 
knew any good come of this same reading and writing. 
Whatever money the schoolmaster possessed — and he had 
received his quarter's pay but a day or two before — he 
must have had about his person at the time of his dis- 1220 
appearance. 

68. The mysterious event caused much speculation 
at the church on the following Sunday. Knots of gazers 
and gossips were collected in the churchyard, at the 
bridge, and at the spot where the hat and pumpkin had 1225 
been found. The stories of Brouwer, of Bones, and a 
whole budget of others, were called to mind ; and when 
they had diligently considered them all, and compared 
them with the symtoms of the present case, they shook 
their heads, and came to the conclusion that Ichabod 1230 
had been carried off by the Galloping Hessian. As he 
was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled 
his head any more about him ; the school was removed 

to a different quarter of the hollow, and another peda- 
gogue reigned in his stead. 1235 

69. It is true, an old farmer who had been down to 
New York on a visit several years after, and from whom 
this account of the ghostly adventure was received, 

69. Ten=pound Court. A court having charge of cases in- 
volving not more than ten pounds or fifty dollars. 



TIFE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 53 

brought home the intelligence that Ichabod Crane was still 
alive ; that he had left the neighborhood, partly through 1240 
fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper, and partly in 
mortification at having been suddenly dismissed by the 
heiress ; and he had changed his quarters to a distant 
part of the country ; had kept school and studied law at 
the same time ; had been admitted to the bar, turned 1245 
politician, electioneered, written for the newspapers, and 
finally had been made a justice of the Ten-pound Court. 
Brom Bones, too, who shortly after his rival's disappear- 
ance conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the 
altar, was observed to look exceedingly knowing when- 1250 
ever the story of Ichabod was related, and always burst 
into a hearty laugh at the mention of the pumpkin ; 
which led some to suspect that he knew more about the 
matter than he chose to tell. 

70. The old country wives, however, who are the 1255 
best judges of these matters, maintain to this day that 
Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means ; and 
it is a favorite story, often told about the neighborhood 
round the winter evening fire. The bridge became more 
than ever an object of superstitious awe, and that mayi260 
be the reason why the road has been altered of late 
years, so as to approach the church by the border of the 
mill-pond. The school-house, being deserted, soon fell 
to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost 
of the unfortunate pedagogue ; and the ploughboy, loiter- 1265 
ing homeward of a still summer evening, has often fan- 
cied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy 
psalm-tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy 
Hollow. 



54 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

POSTSCEIPT, 

FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER. 

71. The preceding tale is given, almost in the pre- 1270 
cise words in which I heard it related at a Corporation 
meeting of the ancient city of Manhattoes, at which were 
present many of its sagest and most illustrious burghers. 
The narrator was a pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old 
fellow, in pepper and salt clothes, with a sadly humor- 1275 
ous face, and one whom I strongly suspected of being 
poor, — he made such efforts to be entertaining. When 
his story was concluded, there was much laughter and 
approbation, particularly from two or three deputy 
aldermen, who had been asleep the greater part of the 1280 
time. There was, however, one tall, dry-looking old 
gentleman, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a 
grave and rather a severe face throughout; now and 
then folding his arms, inclining his head, and looking 
down upon the floor, as if turning a doubt over in his 1285 
mind. He was one of your wary men, who never laugh 
but upon good grounds, — when they have reason and the 
law on their side. When the mirth of the rest of the 
company had subsided, and silence was restored, he 
leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair, and sticking 1290 
the other a-kimbo, demanded, with a slight but exceed- 
ingly sage motion of the head, and contraction of the 
brow, what was the moral of the story, and what it went 

to prove ? 

72. The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of 1295 
wine to his lips, as a refreshment after his toils, paused 
for a moment, looked at his inquirer with an air of in- 
finite deference, and lowering the glass slowly to the 
table, observed that the story was intended most logi- 
cally to prove : — isoo 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 55 

'' That there is no situation in life but has its advan- 
tages and pleasures, — provided we will but take a joke 
as we find it : 

" That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troop- 
ers is likely to have rough riding of it. isos 

'' Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the 
hand of a Dutch heiress is a certain step to high pre- 
ferment in the state." 

73. The cautious old gentleman knit his brows ten- 
fold closer after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by isio 
the ratiocination of the syllogism : while, methought, 
the one in pepper-and-salt eyed him with something of 
a triumphant leer. At length he observed that all this 
was very well, but still he thought the story a little on 
the extravagant, — there were one or two points on which isis 
he had his doubts. 

'* Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, '^as to that mat- 
ter, I don't believe one half of it myself." 



Words from Legend of Sleepy Hollow to be looked up in the 
dictionary. Be sure to find the meaning of the word as used by 
Irving. 

Par. 1. Spacious, coves, indent, expansion, denominated, 
ancient, navigators, prudently, implored, protection, rural, gen- 
erally, properly, housewives, adjacent, inveterate, propensity, 
tavern, market-days, vouch, merely, advert, precise, authentic, 
murmur, lull, repose, occasional, uniform, tranquillity. 

Par. 2. Stripling, exploit, wandered, peculiarly, prolonged, 
reverberated, echoes, retreat, distraction, remnant, promising. 

Par. 3. Listless, repose, character, inhabitants, descendants, 
original, settlers, sequestered, glen, rustic, throughout, drowsy, 
dreamy, influence, pervade, atmosphere, bewitched, settlement, 
prophet, wizard, tribe, powwows, continuous, witching, spell, 
reverie, marvellous, beliefs, subjects, trances, visions, frequently, 
abounds, local, haunted, superstitions, meteors, nightmare, 
favorite, scene, gambols. 

Par. 4. Dominant, spirit, enchanted, region, commander-in- 



56 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

chief, apparitions, ghost, troopers, gloom, haunts, confined, 
extend, especially, vicinity, historians, collating, concerning, 
spectre, allege, churchyard, quest. 

Par. 5. Purport, legendary, materials. 

Par. 6. Remarkable, visionary, mentioned, unconsciously, 
imbibed, resided, inhale, influence, imagination. 

Par. 7. Peaceful, laud, retired, embosomed, population, man- 
ners, customs, fixed, torrent, migration, improvement, inces- 
sant, restless, unobserved, rapid, anchor, revolving, mimic, un- 
disturbed, current, elapsed, trod, vegetating, sheltered. 

Par. 8. By-place, abode, remote, period, worthy, wight, 
sojourned, expressed, tarried, instructing, supplies, pioneers, 
legions, frontier, woodmen, cognomen, inapplicable, exceedingly, 
dangled, served, snipe, weathercock, perched, spindle, striding, 
profile, bagging, fluttering, mistaken, genius, famine, scarecrow, 
eloped. 

Par. 9. Building, rudely, constructed, patched, ingeniously, 
secure, vacant, withe, window-shutters, perfect, embarrassment, 
idea, probably, architect, mystery, eel-pot, situation, woody, 
formidable, hence, conning, interrupted, authoritative, menace, 
peradventure, appalling, urged, loiterer, flowery, knowledge, 
truth, conscientious, bore. 

Par. 10. Imagined, cruel, potentates, smart, contrary, admin- 
istered, discrimination, severity, burthen (sp), mere, puny, 
winced, flourish, indulgence, satisfied, inflicting, tough, wrong- 
headed, broad-skirted, urchin, sulked, swelled, dogged, sullen, 
chastisement, assurance, consolatory. 

Par. 11. Companion, playmate, holiday, convoy, behooved, 
revenue, sufiicient, furnish, feeder, dilating, swains, inferior, 
anaconda, maintenance, successively, effects. 

Par. 12. Onerous, rustic, patrons, grievous, drones, various, 
rendering, occasionally, dominant, dignity, absolute, empire, 
ingratiating, whilom, magnanimously. 

Par. 13. Vocations, shillings, psalmody, vanity, station, gal- 
lery, palm, parson, resounded, congregation, quavers, op- 
posite, legitimately, divers, makeshifts, denominated, peda- 
gogue, tolerably, headwork. 

Par. 14. Importance, rural, personage, superior, accomplish- 
ments, swains, inferior, supernumerary, sweetmeats, peradven- 
ture, parade, damsels, epitaphs, tombstones, bevy, bumpkins, 
envying, elegance, address. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 57 

Par. 15. Gazette, budget, gossip, greeted, esteemed, erudi- 
tion, potently. 

Par. 16. Odd, shrewdness, credulity, appetite, digesting, 
extraordinary, residence, spell-bound, gross, monstrous, 
bordering, con, wended, swamp, woodland, quartered, witching, 
fluttered, boding, tree-toad, harbinger, hooting, rustling, 
thicket, fireflies, vividly, huge, blockhead, beetle, varlet, token, 
resource, drown, evil, nasal, melody, linked, dusky. 

Par. 17. Source, spinning, goblins, anecdotes, witchcraft, 
direful, omens, portentious, prevailed, speculation, comets, 
alarming, topsy-turvy. 

Par. 18. Snugly, cuddling, ruddy, purchased, terrors, subse- 
quent, homewards, shapes, shadows, beset, shrink, curdling, 
crust, dread, uncouth, being, dismay, blast, idea, scourings. 

Par. 19. Phantoms, Satan, perambulations, despite, perplex- 
ity, mortal. 

Par. 20. Musical, disciples, assembled, substantial, blooming, 
lass, partridge, universally, famed, withal, coquette, perceived, 
suited, ornaments, tempting, provokingly, display. 

Par. 21. Morsel, especially, paternal, mansion, thriving, 
contented, seldom, boundaries, satisfied, piqued, style, strong- 
hold, sheltered, fertile, nooks, nestling, dwarf, crevice, forth, 
treasures, resounding, martins, weather, cooing, sleek, unwieldly, 
porkers, repose, sallied, snufi", squadron, adjoining, fleets, regi- 
ments, guinea-fowls, fretting, peevish, strutted, gallant, pattern, 
warrior, burnished, earth. 

Par. 22. Sumptuous, luxurious, fare, devouring, coverlet, 
pairing, cosily, decent, competency, carved, future, juicy, relish- 
ing, daintily, trussed, gizzard, necklace, savory, chanticleer, 
craving, quarter, chivalrous, disdained. 

Par. 23. Enraptured, fancied, meadow-lands, tenement, 
yearned, damsel, inherit, domains, invested, tracts, wild, shingle, 
wilderness, mounted, household, trumpery, beheld, bestriding, 
pacing. 

Par. 24. Conquest, high-ridged, projecting, piazza, capable, 
various, utensils, husbandry, spinning-wheel, important, de- 
voted, resplendent, dresser, loom, festoons, gaud, claw-footed, 
mahogany, mirrors, andirons, tongs, coverts, asparagus, mock 
oranges, conch-shells, decorated, mantel-piece, suspended, 
ostrich, displayed, well-mended. 



58 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

Par. 25. Study, affections, peerless, enterprise, diflaculties, 
yore, giants, enchanters, fiery, dragons, conquered, adversaries, 
contend, adamant, confined, achieved, labyrinth, whims, caprices, 
impediments, encounter, host, portal, competitor. 

Par. 26. Burly, roistering, according, abbreviation, hero, 
feats, hardihood, bluff, countenance, mingled, air, arrogance, 
nickname, skill, horsemanship, dextrous, foremost, ascendency, 
bodily, acquires, umj^ire, decisions, admitting, gainsay, appeal, 
frolic, composition, overbearing, dash, waggish, boon, regarded, 
model, attending, feud, merriment, distinguished, flaunting, 
descried, crest, whisking, squad, squall, crew, dames, gang, 
prank, brawl, warranted. 

Par. 27. Rantipole, singled, amorous, toyings, endearments, 
discourage, advances, signals, candidates, inclination, amours, 
insomuch, paling, suitors. 

Par. 28. Contend, considering, shrunk, competition, pli- 
ability, perseverance, yielding, pressure, erect. 

Par. 29. Field, thwarted, insinuating, apprehend, meddle- 
some, interference, indulgent, reasonable, excellent, notable, 
manage, sagely, bustled, achievements, armed, valiantly, pin- 
nacle, favorable, eloquence. 

Par. 30. Profess, riddle, vulnerable, access, avenues, cap- 
tured, triumph, former, proof, possession, fortress, entitled, re- 
nown, undisputed, sway, interests, evidently, gradually, pre- 
ceptor. 

Par. 31. Degree, fain, warfare, pretentious, mode, concise, 
overheard, wary, opportunity, pacific, alternative, waggery, 
whimsical, harried, hitherto, annoying, ridicule, presence, 
scoundrel, ludicrous, introduced. 

Par. 32. Producing, relative, pensive, enthroned, concerns, 
literary, realm, ferule, scepter, despotic, constant, apparently, 
inflicted, intent, resigned, fragment, invitation, delivered, mes- 
sage, effort, petty, embassies. 

Par. 33. Impunity, legion, imps, emancipation. 

Par. 34. Furbishing, cavalier, domiciliated, choleric, issued, 
quest, meet, romantic, equipments, bestrode, viciousness, gaunt, 
ewe, pupil, genuine, favorite, furious, infused, lurking. 

Par. 35. Suitable, pommel, perpendicularly, . scanty, sham- 
bled. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 59 

Par. 36. Serene, livery, associate, sober, brilliant, files, in- 
tervals. 

Par. 37. Banquets, frolicking, capricious, profusion, variety, 
querulous, sable, gorget, splendid, plumage, coxcomb, pretend- 
ing, grove. 

Par. 38. Symptom, culinary, oppressive, opulence, cider 
press, ample, fragrant, odor, anticipations, dainty garnished 
treacle. 

Par. 39. Journeyed, goodliest, disk, motionless, undulation, 
prolonged, amber, horizon, tint, mid-heaven, lingered, precipices, 
uselessly, mast, reflection. 

Par. 40. Castle, spare, homespun, magnificent, withered, 
crimped, buxom, antiquated, ribband (sp), innovation, stupen- 
dous, queued, eel-skin, potent, nourisher. 

Par. 41. Creature, preferring, risk, tractable, unworthy. 

Par. 42. Fain, pause, dwell, sumptuous, indescribable, ex- 
perienced, doughty, koek, cruller, delectable, enumerated, dis- 
cuss, deserves, eager, historian. 

Par. 43. Dilated, proportion, niggardly, patron, comrade. 

Par. 44. Guests, hospitable, brief, expressive. 

Par. 45. Summoned, musician, century, instrument. 

Par. 46. Vocal, fiber, figuring, admiration, pyramid, ivory, 
animated, partner, graciously, ogling, sorely, smitten, jealousy, 
brooding, 

Par. 47. Attracted, sager, gossiping. 

Par. 48. Chronicle, marauding, infested, refugees, border, 
chivalry, elapsed, fiction, indistinctness, exploit. 

Par. 49. Frigate, nine-pounder, breastwork, discharge, de- 
fence, parried, hilt, persuaded, termination. 

Par. 50. Legendary, superstitions, thrive, sheltered, retreats, 
shifting, surviving, communities. 

Par. 51. Prevalence, supernatural, contagion, infecting, dol- 
ing, dismal, wailings, perished, patrolling, tethered. 

Par. 52. Sequestered, modestly, purity, dell, raves, heretical, 
foray, obliged, skeleton. 

Par. 53. Matched, arrant, jockey, affirmed, vanished. 

Par. 54. Countenance, casual, extract, author, native. 

Par. 55. Revel, pillions, echoed, tete-a-tete, heiress, inter- 
view, interval, desolate, chop-fallen, sham, surface, gloated, 
timothy. 



60 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

Par. 56. Crest-fallen, indistinct, anchor, vague, accidentally, 
melancholy, guttural, twang, marsh. 

Par. 57. Enormous, towered, gnarled, fantastic, ordinary, 
tragical, sympathy, ill-starred, namesake, lamentations. 

Par. 58. Ceased, scathed, perils. 

Par. 59. Cavernous, gloom, severest, identical, sturdy, yeo- 
man. 

Par. 60. Resolution, perverse, lateral, broadside, lustily, 
starveling, margin, misshapen, gigantic, monster. 

Par. 61. Affrighted, demanded, accents, agitated, inflexible, 
involuntary, fervor, ascertained, dimensions, molestations, socia- 
bility, aloof, waywardness. 

Par. 62. Eelish, endeavored, resume, clave, stave, moody, 
pertinacious, relief, muffled, horror-struck, desperation, flimsy. 

Par. 63. Demon, famous. 

Par. 64. Panic, advantage, chase, girths, pursuer, haunches, 
ado, verily, cleave, asunder. 

Par. 65. Wavering, dimly, convulsive, brimstone, missile, 
cranium, tremendous, whirlwind. 

Par. 63. Soberly, strolled, uneasiness, fate, diligent, investi- 
gation, traces, dented. 

Par. 67. Executor, estate, examined, worldly, eff'ects, cordu- 
roy, excepting, almanac, fruitless, poetic, scrawl, consigned. 



Par. 68. Event, badget, diligently, compared, conclusion, 
bachelor, stead- 
Par. 69. Intellisence, mortification, politician, electioneered, 
conducted, triumph, exceedingly, related, suspect. 
Par. 70. Spirited, altered, deserted, solitudes. 
Par. 71. Preceding, precise, sagest, illustrious, narrator, hu- 
morous, concluded, approbation, beetling, grave, doubt, mirth, 
subsided, contraction. 

Par. 72. Refreshment, toils, infinite, deference, logically, 
preferment. 

Par. 73. Ratiocination, syllogism, leer, extravagant. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 61 



QUESTIONS ON THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY 
HOLLOW- 

1. Describe the Hudson Eiver. When and by whom discov- 
ered? How large is Tappan Zee? (4 roiles wide by 10 miles 
long.) What is the name of the market town? By what other 
name is it known? Why so called, and by whom? What is it 
now called? (Irvington.) How far is Tarry Town from Sleepy 
Hollow? From New York? (27 miles.) Who was St. Nicho- 
las? 

2. Did Irving ever realize the wish expressed in lines 29-30-31 
and 32? 

3. Why is this glen called Sleepy Hollow ? What are the 
boys called? Explain lines 40-41. What "holds a spell over 
the minds of the good people?" Effect of this upon the inhabit- 
ants? Mention some things to show that the people are super- 
stitious. Compare the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow with your 
own townsmen. 

4. What is the dominant spirit that haunts this enchanted 
region? Who were the Hessians? 

6. What is the result of a long sojourn in Sleepy Hollow ? 

7. In what respect is Sleepy Hollow diflferent from other 
small towns in New York? Explain lines 103-104-105. Why is 
the word " vegetating," line 105, especially apt? 

8. Why does the author speak of "remote period " in Ameri- 
can history? Memorize the description of Ichabod, lines 116- 
123. 

9. Compare the schoolhouse with those of the present time. 
About how old was Ichabod at the time he was in Sleepy Hol- 
low ? Are his pupils spoiled ? Give reasons for your answer. 

10. How does Ichabod administer justice? Point out the 
consolation offered the smarting urchin in lines 166-167. Do you 
think the "consolation " is consoling? 

11. Was Ichabod's wardrobe extensive? Give reasons for 
your answer. 

12. Give two sources from which Ichabod's living is obtained. 



62 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW- 

How does he find favor with his patrons? (Lines 189-200.) Name 
one accomplishment upon which he prides himself. 

13. From whom does Ichabod "carry away the palm?" 
What is meant by "hook and by crook?" What may still be 
heard in the church on a still Sunday morning which remind the 
people of Ichabod ? Were Ichabod's services fully appreciated 
by the people of Sleepy Hollow ? 

14. By whom is a schoolmaster usually considered a man of 
some importance in a rural neighborhood? Why? How does 
Ichabod amuse the " country damsels? " 

15. Who is the " travelling gazette? " Why is Ichabod con- 
sidered a man of great erudition? Would he be so considered 
now? Who was Cotton Mather? Tell the story of the New 
England witchcraft. 

16. What has been increased by Ichabod's residence in this 
** spellbound region?" When is the "witching hour?" Ex- 
plain "Fluttered his imagination," lines 261-262. What had 
excited his imagination ? What often startled him ? What 
would he do to keep up his courage at such times? 

17. Why " fearful pleasure," in line 279? How would the 
Dutch wives entertain Ichabod? How would he entertain 
them? 

18. Describe Ichabod's feelings as he goes home after an 
evening spent in this way. Why "sheeted spectre," line 305-306. 

19. What put an end to all these evils? Discuss Irving's 
estimate of "woman," as given in lines 314-324. 

20. Who was Katrina Van Tassel ? Describe her. Memo- 
rize lines 328-332. How does Ichabod become acquainted with 
Katrina? How does he regard her? 

21. Describe Katrina's father. Give his leading character- 
istics. Describe the Van Tassel home. Give some of Ichabod's 
" air castles." 

22. Why does Ichabod's mouth "water" as he views the 
surroundings? Explain *' mind's eye," line 388. 

23. Explain lines 417-419. 

24. Describe the Van Tassel house. 

25. What was Ichabod's study? (line 452.) Does he yearn 
more for Katrina or for her prospects? What difficulties does 
he encounter in wooing Katrina? 

26. Who is his most dangerous rival? Describe Brom Bones. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 63 

Why is he a leader among the boys of Sleepy Hollow? Explain, 
'•'herculean frame." Tartars. Don Coasacks. Compare Brom 
with Ichabod. Which one do you admire most? Why? 

27. What is meant by "carrying the war into other quar- 
ters?" 

28. What new insight is given into Ichabod's character in 
lines 527-533? Do you think these qualities add strength to a 
character ? 

29. Who was Achilles? How does Ichabod make his ad- 
vances to Katrina ? In what way does he have the advantage 
of Brom Bones ? In what way does Brom have the advantage of 
him? For what person and what object does Van Tassel par- 
ticularly care ? Which does he prefer? What is your opinion 
of Mrs. Van Tassel ? 

30. What caused the deadly feud to arise between Ichabod 
and Brom ? 

31. What was Brom's boast? What name is applied to 
Brom's associates? How does Brom persecute Ichabod? Is 
"whom" properly used in line 604? 

32. What is meant by Ichabod's "literary realm," line 612? 
" Birch justice, " line 613? Why is the schoolroom painfully 
quiet when the messenger boy arrives with the invitation to 
Ichabod? (line 630). 

33. What effect does the invitation have upon Ichabod? 
upon the pupils ? 

34. How does Ichabod prepare for the party? Who is Van 
Ripper? Describe Gunpowder. 

35. Describe Ichabod's appearance as he leaves Van Ripper's. 
Why does he ride on horseback on this particular evening? 
Notice the beautiful description in lines 691-701. 

37. Explain line 702. Name all the birds mentioned in lines 
702-717 and give a qualifying expression for each. 

38. Give in j'^our own language the scenes in lines 721-735. 

39. What are "sugared suppositions," line 737? 

40. Whom does Ichabod meet at Van Taasel's? Describe 
the farmers; the women; the lasses. 

41. Who is the hero of the scene? Describe Daredevil. 

42. What is the "world of charms" for Ichabod? Describe 
it. Contrast the author's description and Ichabod's manner. 

43. How do Ichabod's spirits rise? What are his thoughts 



64 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

while seated at the table? Describe his actions. What charac- 
teristic here shown? 

44. How does Van Tassel display his hospitality? 

45. Describe the musician as he is playing. Why called 
"itinerant orchestra?" 

46. Upon what does Ichabod pride himself? Describe "him 
as he appears to you while dancing. Who is meant by the 
* ' flogger of urchins ?' ' How does Brom Bones pass the evening ? 

47. Where does Ichabod go after he quits dancing? 

48. What made this neighborhood especially interesting at 
this particular time ? 

49. What is the character of the first stories told? What is 
the nature of the other anecdotes ? 

50. Where do superstitions thrive best? Why? 

51. AYhat was the immediate cause of supernatural stories 
on this occasion ? Mention some stories told. Who was Major 
Andre ? What is the chief story told ? 

52. Why is the church a favorite haunt for troubled spirits? 
Describe the church surroundings. Give Brouwer's experience 

53. How is this story matched? Tell Brom' s story. Why is 
this the last story told? 

54. What effect do all these stories have upon Ichabod? 
How does he repay the story tellers? 

55. Describe the home going. W^ho lingers? Why? What 
causes Ichabod's sudden departure ? What is your opinion of 
Katrina now ? 

58. How does Ichabod try to drive unpleasant thoughts 
away? Trace each stage of Ichabod's feelings from the time he 
begins to whistle, line 1036, until the "shadowy object" leaps 
into the middle of the road, line 1097. 

61. Why does Gunpowder become quiet? 

62, 63. Whom does Ichabod take the stranger to be? Why 
does not Ichabod sing at this time to keep up his courage? How 
does he try to avoid the stranger? What is there '♦ mysterious 
and appalling " about the stranger? What does Ichabod d© 
when he discovers the cause of it? 

64, 65. Describe the race. Why does Ichabod think he will 
be safe if he can reach the bridge ? What happens when he 
does reach the bridge ? 

68; 67. Where is Gunpowder found the next morning? Who 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 65 

becomes uneasy ? Why? What is the result of the inquiry? 
Who is appointed executor? What is Ichabod's estate? What 
is done with his belongings? How does Van Ripper regard 
public Echools? 

68. Where do they discuss the sudden disappearance of 
Ichabod ? Why does no one trouble him self over it ? 

69. What accounts are brought from New York about Icha- 
bod? Give all the reasons you can for Ichabod's departure. 
What is Brom's reward? Why does he enjoy the story of the 
pumpkin? 

70. What do the " old country wives" maintain? How is 
the bridge regarded? What became of the old schoolhouse? 
What do the ploughboys sometimes imagine? Who is your 
favorite character in the story ? 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 

A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKER- 
BOCKER. 

" By Woden, God of Saxons, 
From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday, 
Truth is a thing that ever I will keep 
Unto thylke day in which I creep into 
My sepulchre." 

— Cartweight. 

RIP VAN WINKLE. 

[The following Tale was found among the papers of the late 
Diedrich Knickbocker, an old gentleman of New York, who was 
very curious in the Dutch history of the province, and the man- 
ners of the descendants from its primitive settlers. His his- 
torical researches, however, did not lie so much among books as 
among men ; for the former are lamentably scanty on his favorite 
topics ; whereas he found the old burghers, and still more their 
wives, rich in legendary lore, so valuable to true history. When- 
ever, therefore, he happened upon a genuine Dutch family, 
snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse, under a spreading 
sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped volume of black- 
letter, and studied it with the zeal of a bookworm. 

The result of all these researches was a history of the prov- 
ince during the reign of the Dutch governors, which he pub- 
lished some years since. There have been various opinions as 
to the literary character of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is 
not a whit better than it should be. Its chief merit is its 
scrupulous accuracy, which, indeed, was a little questioned on 
its fijst appearance, but has since been completely established; 
and is now admitted into all historical collections, as a book of 
unquestionable authority. 

The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his 
work, and now that he is dead and gone, it can not do much 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 67 

harm to his memory to say that his time might have been much 
better employed in weightier labors. He, however, was apt to 
ride his hobby in his own way ; and though it did now and then 
kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors, and grieve 
the spirit of some friends, for whom he felt the truest deference 
and affection ; yet his errors and follies are remembered '* more 
in sorrow than in anger," and it begins to be suspected that he 
never intended to injure or offend. But however his memory 
may be appreciated by critics, it is still held dear by many folk, 
whose good opinion is well worth having ; particularly by certain 
biscuit-makers, who have gone so far as to imprint his likeness 
on their new-year cakes ; and have thus given him a chance for 
immortality, almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo 
Medal, or a Queen Ann's Farthing.] 

1. Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson, 
must remember the Kaatskill Mountains. They are a 
dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, 
and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up 
to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding 
country. Every change of season, every change of 5 
weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some 
change in the magical hues and shapes of these moun- 
tains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far 
and near, as perfect barometers. "When the weather 

is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, lo 
and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky ; 
but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloud- 
less, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their 
summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will 
glow and light up like a crown of glory. lo 

2. At the foot of these fairy mountains the voyager 
may have descried the light smoke curling up from a 
village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just 
where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the 
fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little vil- 20 
lage of great antiquity, having been founded by some of 



68 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

the Dutch colonists in the early times of the province*, 
just about the beginning of the government of the good 
Peter Stuyvesant, (may he rest in peace !) and there 
were some of the houses of the original settlers standing 25 
within a few j^ears, built of small yellow bricks brought 
from Holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, 
surmounted with weathercocks. 

3. In that same village, and in one of these very 
houses, (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time- so 
worn and weather-beaten,) there lived many years 
since, while the country was yet a province of Great 
Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of 
Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van 
Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days 35 
of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege 
of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of 
the martial spirit of his ancestors. I have observed 
that he was a simple good-natured man ; he was, more- 
over, a kind neighbor, and an obedient, hen-pecked hus- 40 
band. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be ow- 
ing that meekness of spirit which gained him such uni- 
versal popularity ; for those men are most apt to be obse- 
quious and conciliating abroad, who are under the disci- 
pline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are 45 
rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of do- 
mestic tribulation, and a curtain lecture is worth all the 
sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience 

2. Peter Stuyvesant (sti've sant), the last Dutch governor 
of New York. 

3. Fort Christina. A Swedish settlement on the Dela- 
ware river which was captured by the English under Stuyvesant. 

3. Curtain lecture. A sound scolding given a husband bj 
his wife when no one else is present. It originally meant a lec- 
ture given when safely behind the bed curtains. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 69 

and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, 
in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing; and 
if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed. 50 

4. Certain it is that he was a great favorite among 
all the good wives of the village, who, as usual with 
the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles ; 
and never failed, whenever they talked those matters 
over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on 55 
Dame Van Winkle. The children of the village, too, 
would shout with joy whenever he approached. He 
assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught 
them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long 
stories of ghosts, witches and Indians. Whenever he so 
went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a 
troop of them, hanging on his skirts, clambering on his 
back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with im- 
punity ; and not a dog would bark at him throughout 
the neighborhood. 65 

5. The great error in Eip's composition was an in- 
superable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It 
could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverence ; 
for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and 
heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a 70 
murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a 
single nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece on his 
shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and 
swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squir- 
rels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a ^5 
neighbor even in the roughest toil and was a foremost man 
at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building 
stone fences : the women of the village, too, used to em- 

5. Tartar's lance. A long, heavy shaft with a spear-head 
used to fight with by the Tartars. 



70 RIF VAN WINKLE. 

ploy him to run their errands, and to do such little odd 
jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for so 
them. In a word, Kip was ready to attend to anybody's 
business but his own ; but as to doing family duty, and 
keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. 

6. In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on 
his farm ; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground 85 
in the whole country : everything about it went wrong, 
and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences were 
continually falling to pieces ; his cow would either go 
astray, or get among the cabbages ; weeds were sure to 
grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else ; the rain 9o 
always made a point of setting in just as he had some 
out-door work to do; so that though his patrimonial 
estate had dwindled away under his management, acre 
by acre, until there was little more left than a mere 
patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst 95 
conditioned farm in the neighborhood. 

7. His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if 
they belonged to nobody. His son, Rip, an urchin be- 
gotten in his own likeness, promised to inherit the habits, 
with the old clothes of his father. He was generally loo 
seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped 
in a pair of his father's cast-ofl* galligaskins, which he 
had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine lady 
does her train in bad weather. 

8. Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy io5 
mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the 
world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be 
got with least thought or trouble, and would rather 
starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to 
himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect no 

7. Galligaskins, Very loose trousers. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 71 

contentment ; but his wife kept continually dinning in 
his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin 
he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon and 
night her tongue was incessantly going, and everything 
he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of house- 115 
hold eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all 
lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had 
grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook 
his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, how- 
ever, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife, so 120 
that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the 
outside of the house, — the only side which, in truth, 
belongs to a hen-pecked husband. 

9. Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, 
who was as much hen-pecked as his master ; for Dame 125 
Van Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, 
and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the 
cause of his master's going so often astray. True it is, 
in all points of spirit befitting an honorable dog, he was 
as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods ; 130 
but what courage can withstand the ever-during and all- 
besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment 
Wo]f entered the house his crest fell, his tail drooped to 
the ground or curled between his legs, he sneaked about 
with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong glance at 135 
Dame Van Winkle, and at the least flourish of a broom- 
stick or ladle, he would fly to the door with yelping 
precipitation. 

10. Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van 
Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on ; a tart temper i40 
never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only 
edged tool that grows keener with constant use. For a 
long while he used to console himself, when driven from. 
home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the 



72 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the 145 
village, which held its sessions on a bench before a 
small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of his Majesty 
George the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade 
through a long lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over 
village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories about 150 
nothing. But it would have been worth any statesman's 
money to have heard the profound discussions that some- 
times took place, when by chance an old newspaper fell 
into their hands from some passing traveller. How 
solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled 155 
out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper 
learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the 
most gigantic word in the dictionary ; and how sagely 
they would deliberate upon public events some months 
after they had taken place ! 160 

11. The opinions of this junto were completely con- 
trolled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, 
and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took 
his seat from morning till night, just moving suflQciently 
to avoid the sun and keep in the shade of a large tree ; so i65 
that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements 
as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is true, he was rarely 
heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. His 
adherents, however, (for every great m.an has his adher- 
ents,) perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather i7o 
his opinions. When anything that was read or related 
displeased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe 
vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent and angry 
puffs ; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke 
slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid 175 

10. His Majesty George the Third, King of England, dur- 
ing the Eevokitionary AVar. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 73 

clouds, and sometimes taking the pipe from bis mouth, 
and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would 
gravely nod his head in token of perfect approbation. 

12. From even this stronghold the unluck}^ Rip was 
at length routed by his termagant wife, who would sud- iso 
denly break in upon the tranquillity of the assemblage 
and call the members all to naught ; nor was that august 
personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the dar- 
ing tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him out- 
right with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness. i85 

13. Poor Eip was at last reduced almost to despair ; 
and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the 
farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand 
and stroll away into the woods. Here he would some- 
times seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the i90 
contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympa- 
thized as a fellow sufferer in persecution. " Poor Wolf," 
he would say, '' thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it ; 
but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never 
want a friend to stand by thee ! " Wolf would wag hisi95 
tail, look wistfully in his master's face, and if dogs can 
feel pity, I verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment 
with all his heart. 

14. In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal 
day, Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the 200 
highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains. He was after 
his favorite sport of squirrel shooting, and the still soli- 
tudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his 
gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the 
afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain 205 
herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. From 
an opening between the trees he could overlook all the 
lower country for many a mile of rich woodlaud. He 
saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, far, tar below liim, 



74 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

moving on its silent but majestic course, with the reflec- 210 
tion of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here 
and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing 
itself in the blue highlands. 

15. On the other side he looked down into a deep 
mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom 215 
filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and 
scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. 
For some time Eip lay musing on this scene ; evening 
was gradually advancing ; the mountains began to throw 
their long blue shadows over the valleys ; he saw that it 220 
would be dark long before he could reach the village, 
and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encoun- 
tering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. 

16. As he was about to descend, he heard a voice 
from a distance hallooing, " Rip Van Winkle ! Eip Van 225 
Winkle ! " He looked round, but could see nothing but 

a crow winging its solitary flight across the mountain. 
He thought his fancy must have deceived him, and 
turned again to descend, when he heard the same cry ring 
through the still evening air : '^ Rip Van Winkle ! Rip 230 
Van Winkle ! " — at the same time Wolf bristled up his 
back, and, giving a low growl, skulked to his master's 
side, looking fearfully down the glen. Rip now felt a 
vague apprehension stealing over him ; he looked anx- 
iously in the same direction, and perceived a strange 235 
figure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under 
the weight of something he carried on his back. He 
was surprised to see any human being in this lonely and 
unfrequented place, but supposing it to be some one of 
the neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened 240 
down to yield it. 

17. On nearer approach he was still more surprised 
at the singularity of the stranger's appearance. He was 



RIP VAN WINKLE, 75 

a short, square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, 
and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique 245 
Dutch fashion, — a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist, 
several pairs of breeches, the outer one of ample volume, 
decorated with rows of buttons down the sides, and 
bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulder a stout 
keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip 250 
to approach and assist him with the load. Though 
rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance. Rip 
complied with his usual alacrity ; and mutually reliev- 
ing each other, they clambered up a narrow gully, ap- 
parently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they 255 
ascended, Rip every now and then heard long rolling 
peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a 
deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty rocks, toward 
which their rugged path conducted. He paused for an 
instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of 260 
those transient thunder-showers which often take place 
in mountain heights, he proceeded. Passing through 
the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a small amphi- 
theatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over 
the brinks of which impending trees shot their branches, 265 
so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky and 
the bright evening cloud. During the whole time Rip 
and his companion had labored on in silence ; for 
though the former marvelled greatly what could be the 
object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, 2:0 
yet there was something strange and incomprehensible 
about the unknown, that inspired awe and checked 
familiarity. 

18. On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of 
wonder presented themselves. On a level spot in the 275 
center was a company of odd-looking personages play- 
ing at ninepins. They were dressed in a quaint, out- 



76 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

landish fashion ; some wore short doublets, others jerk- 
ins, with long knives in their belts, and most of them 
had enormous breeches, of similar style with those of the 280 
guide. Their visages, too, were peculiar ; one had a large 
head, broad face, and small piggish eyes ; the face of 
another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was sur- 
mounted by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little 
red cock's tail. They all had beards of various shapes 285 
and colors. There was one who seemed to be the com- 
mander. He was a stout old gentleman with a weather- 
beaten countenance ; he wore a laced doublet, broad 
belt and hanger, high-crowned hat and feather, red 
stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with roses in them. 290 
The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old 
Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick, 
the village parson, and which had been brought over 
from Holland at the time of the settlement. 

19. What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that 295 
though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, 
yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysteri- 
ous silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy 
party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. !N'othing in- 
terrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of the 300 
balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along 
the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. 

20. As Rip and his companion approached them, 
they suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at 
him with such fixed statue-like gaze, and such strange, 305 
uncouth, lack-lustre countenances, that his heart turned 
within him, and his knees smote together. His com- 
panion now emptied the contents of the keg into large 
flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the com- 
pany. He obeyed with fear and trembling ; they quaffed 310 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 77 

the liquor in profound silence, and then returned to 
their game. 

21. B3^ degrees Eip's awe and apprehension subsided. 
He even ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to 
taste the beverage, which he found had much of thesis 
flavor of excellent Hollands. He Avas naturally a thirsty 
soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. 
One taste provoked another ; and he reiterated his visits 
to the flagon so often that at length his senses were over- 
powered, his ej^es swam in his head, his head gradually 320 
declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. 

22. On waking, he found himself on the green knoll 
whence he had first seen the old man of the glen. He 
rubbed his eyes, — it was a bright sunny morning. The 
birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, 325 
and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure 
mountain breeze. '' Surely," thought Eip, " I have not 
slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences before 
he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of liquor — 
the mountain ravine — the wild retreat among the 330 
rocks — the woe-begone party at ninepins — the flagon — 
"Oh! that wicked flagon!" thought Rip; "what ex- 
cuse shall I make to Dame Yan Winkle?" 

23. He looked round for his gun, but in place of the 
clean, well-oiled fowling-piece, he found an old firelock 335 
lying by him, the barrel incrusted with rust, the lock 
falling ofi*, and the stock worm-eaten. He now suspected 
that the grave roysters of the mountain had put a trick 
upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had 
robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, 340 
but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or 

23. Fowling-piece, a light shotgun for bird shooting. Fire- 
lock, an old-style gun. 



78 BIP VAN WINKLE. 

partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his 
name, but all in vain ; the echoes repeated his whistle 
and shout, but no dog was to be seen. 

24. He determined to revisit the scene of the last 345 
evening's gambol, and if he met with any of the party, 
to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to walk, he 
found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual 
activity. " These mountain beds do not agree with me," 
thought Kip, '' and if this frolic should lay me up with 350 
a fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with 
Dame Yan Winkle. " With some difficulty he got down 
into the glen ; he found the gully up which he and his 
companion had ascended the preceding evening ; but to 
his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming 355 
down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen 
with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to 
scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through 
thickets of birch, sassafras, and witchhazel, and some- 
times tripped up or entangled by the wild grapevines seo 
that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree, and 
spread a kind of network in his path. 

25. At length he reached to where the ravine had 
opened through the cliffs to the amphitheatre ; but no 
traces of such opening remained. The rocks presented 365 
a high impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came 
tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a 
broad deep basin, black from the shadows of the sur- 
rounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to 

a stand. He again called and whistled after his dog ; 370 
he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle 
crows, sporting high in air about a dry tree that over- 
hung a sunny precipice, and who, secure in their eleva- 
tion, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's 
perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was 375 



HIP VAN WINKLE. 79 

passing away, and Kip felt famished for want of his 
breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog and his gun ; 
he dreaded to meet his wife ; but it would not do to 
starve among the mountains. He shook his head, 
shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of 380 
trouble and anxiety, turned his steps homeward. 

26. As he approached the village he met a number of 
people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat sur- 
prised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with 
every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was 335 
of a different fashion from that to which he was ac- 
customed. They all stared at him with equal marks of 
surprise, and whenever they cast eyes upon him, invari- 
ably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of 
this gesture induced Kip, involuntarily, to do the same, 390 
when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had 
grown a foot long ! 

27. He had now entered the skirts of the village. A 
troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after 
him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, .too, 395 
not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance, 
barked at him as he passed. The very village was 
altered ; it was larger and more populous. There were 
rows of houses which he had never seen before, and 
those which had been his familiar haunts had disap-40o 
peared. Strange names were over the doors — strange 
faces at the windows — everything was strange. His 
mind now misgave him ; he began to doubt whether 
both he and the world around him were not bewitched. 
Surely this was his native village, which he had left but 405 
the day before. There stood the Kaatskill Mountains ; 
there ran the silver Hudson at a distance ; there was 
every hill and dale precisely as it had alwaj^s been ; Kip 



80 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

was sorely perplexed. *' That flagon last night," thought 
he, '' has addled my poor head sadly ! " 410 

28. It was with some difficulty that he found the 
way to his own house, which he approached with silent 
awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of 
Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay, 
the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors 415 
off the hinges. A half-starved dog that looked like 
Wolf was skulking about it. Eip called him by name, 
but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. 
This was an unkind cut indeed. " My very dog," sighed 
poor Eip, '^ has forgotten me." 420 

29. He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, 
Dame Van Winkle had always kept in neat order. It 
was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. The 
desolateness overcame all his connubial fears, — he called 
loudly for his wife and children ; the lonely chambers 425 
rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again 
was silence. 

30. He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old 
resort, the village inn ; but it, too, was gone. A large 
rickety wooden building stood in its place, with great, 430 
gaping windows, some of them broken, and mended 
with old hats and petticoats ; and over the door was 
painted, "The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." 
Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet 
little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall 435 
naked pole, with something on the top that looked like 

a red night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on 

30. A tall naked pole. At the outbreak of the Eevolution- 
ary War the Americans erected tall poles called liberty poles. 
A red cap was placed upon the top of the pole to indicate free- 
dom. The poles were also used as flagpoles. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 81 

which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes ; 
all this was strange and incomprehensible. He recog- 
nized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King 440 
George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful 
pipe ; but even this was singularly metamorphosed. 
The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a 
sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the 
head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath 445 
was painted in large characters, General Washington^ 

31. There was, as usual, a crown of folk about the 
door, but none that Eip recollected. The very character 
of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, bus- 
tling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accus- 450 
tomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in 
vain for the sage jNT icholas Vedder, with his broad face, 
double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco- 
smoke instead of idle speeches ; or Van Bummel, the 
schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient 455 
newspaper. In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking 
fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing 
vehemently about rights of citizens — election — members 
of congress — liberty — Bunker's Hill — heroes of seventy- 
six — and other words which were a perfect Babylonish 460 
jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle. 

32. The appearance of Eip, with his long grizzled 
beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an 
army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the 
attention of the tavern politicians. They crowded round 465 
him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. 
The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly 
aside, inquired "on which side he voted." Eip stared 

31. Babylonish. Confused ; like the confusion of languages 
at the Tower ot Babel. 



82 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

in vacant stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow 
pulled him by the arm, and rising on tiptoe, inquired 470 
in his ear *' whether he was Federal or Democrat." Eip 
was equally at a loss to comprehend the question ; 
when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a 
sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, put- 
ting them to the right and left with his elbows as he 475 
passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with 
one arm a-kimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen 
eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very 
soul, demanded in an austere toue, '' What brought him 
to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at 480 
his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the 
village?" — ''Alas! gentlemen," cried Eip, somewhat 
dismayed, ' ' I am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, 
and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him ! " 

33. Here a general shout burst from the bystanders : 485 
^'Atory! a tory ! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away 
with him ! " It was with great difficulty that the self- 
important man in the cocked hat restored order ; and 
having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded 
again of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, 490 
and whom he was seeking. The poor man humbly as- 
sured him that he meant no harm, but merely came 
there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to 
keep about the tavern. 

" Well — who are they ? — name them." 495 

32. Whether he was a Federal or a Democrat. They 
wished to know to which political party he belonged. 

33. **A tory ! " a tory ! " A tory was one who lived in 
the colonies and belonged to the colonists but who supported the 
cause of England in the Revolutionary war. The colonists hated 
such persons worse than they did the English soldiers. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 83 

Eip bethought himself a moment, aiul inquired, 
^' Where's Nicholas Tedder ? " 

34. There was a silence for a little while, when an 
old man replied in a thin piping voice, ^' Nicholas Yed- 
der ! why he is dead and gone these eighteen years ! 500 
There w^as a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that 
used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone 
too." 

^' Where's Brom Dutcher?" 

'' O, he went off to the army in the beginning of the 505 
war ; some say he was killed at the storming of Stony 
Point ; others say he was drowned in a squall at the 
foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know ; he never came 
back again." 

'' Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster ?" sio 

" He went off to the wars, too, w^as a great militia 
general, and is now in congress." 

35. Eip's heart died away at hearing of these sad 
changes in his home and friends, and finding himself 
thus left alone in the w^orld. Every answer puzzled him 515 
too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of 
matters which he could not understand : war — congress 
— Stony Point;— he had no courage to ask after any 
more friends, but cried out in despair, '' Does nobody 
here know Eip Van Winkle ?" ^20 

'^ O, Eip Van Winkle ! " exclaimed two or three. " O, 
to be sure! that's Eip Van Winkle yonder, leaning 
against the tree." 

36. Eip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of 
himself, as he w^ent up the mountain: apparently as 525 

34. Stony Point. A strong fortress captured from the 
English by the Americans during the Revolutionary War after 
one of the most brilliant charges in miUtary history. The 
Americans were led by General Anthony Wayne. 



84 RIF VAN WINKLE, 

lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now 
completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, 
and whether he was himself or another man. In the 
midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat 
demanded who he was, and what was his name. 530 

" God knows ! " exclaimed he, at his wit's end ; '' I'm 
not myself— I'm somebody else — that's me yonder — no — 
that's somebody else got into my shoes — I was myself 
last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they've 
changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm 535 
changed, and I can't tell what's my name, or who I am !" 

37. The bystanders began now to look at each other, 
nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers against 
their foreheads. There was a whisper, also, about secur- 
ing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mis- 540 
chief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important 
man in the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. 
At this critical moment a fresh comely woman pressed 
through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded 
man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, 545 
frightened at his looks, began to cry. " Hush, E,ip," 
cried she, ^^ hush, jom little fool ; the old man won't hurt 
you." The name of the child, the air of the mother, 
the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollec- 
tions in his mind. ''What is your name, my good 550 
woman?" asked he. 

'' Judith Gar denier." 

'' And your father's name ?" 

'' Ah, poor man I Rip Van Winkle was his name, but 
it's twenty years since he went away from home with 555 
his gun, and never has been heard of since. His dog 
came home without him ; but whether he shot himself, 
or was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. 
I was then but a little girl." 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 85 

38. Rip had but one question more to ask ; but he .500 
put it with a faltering voice : — 

^' Where's your mother?" 

'^ Oh, she too had died but a short time since ; she 
broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New Eng- 
land peddler." 565 

39. There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this 
intelligence. The honest man could contain himself no 
longer. He caught his daughter and her child in his 
arms. " I am j^our father ! " cried he — " Young Rip 
Yan Winkle once — old Rip Van Winkle now ! Does 570 
nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle ? " 

40. All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering 
out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, 
and peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, 
''Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle — it is himself ! 575 
Welcome home again, old neighbor. Why, where have 
you been these twenty long years ? " 

41. Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty 
years had been to him but as one night. The neigh- 
bors stared when they heard it ; some were seen to 58o 
wink at each other, and put their tongues in their 
cheeks : and the self-important man in the cocked hat, 
who when the alarm was over had returned to the field, 
screwed down the corners of his mouth, and shook his 
head ; upon which there was a general shaking of the oS5 
head throughout the assemblage. 

42. It was determined, however, to take the opinion 
of old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advanc- 
ing up the road. He was a descendant of the historian 
of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of 590 
the province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of 
the village and Avell versed in all the wonderful events 
and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at 



86 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory 595 
manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, 
handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the 
Kaatskill Mountains had always been haunted by 
strange beings; that it was affirmed that the great 
Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river andeoo 
country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, 
with his crew of the Half-moon, being permitted in this 
way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a 
guardian eye upon the river, and the great city called 
by his name ; that his father had once seen them in eos 
their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow 
of the mountain ; and that he himself had heard, one 
summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant 
peals of thunder. 

43. To make a long story short, the company broke 610 
up, and returned to the more important concerns of the 
election. Rip's daughter took him home to live with 
her ; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout, 
cheery farmer for her husband, whom Eip recollected 
for one of the urchins that used to climb upon his back. 615 
As to Eip's son and heir, who was the ditto of himself, 
seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work 
on the farm, but evinced an hereditary disposition to 
attend to anything else but his business. 

44. Rip now resumed his old walks and habits ; he 620 
soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather 
the worse for the wear and tear of time, and preferred 
making friends among the rising generation, with whom 
he soon grew into great favor. 

45. Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived 625 

42. Half -moon. The name of the ship in which Hendrick 
Hudson sailed while conducting his explorations. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 87 

at that happy age when a man can be idle with impun- 
itj^, he took his place once more on the bench at the inn 
door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the 
village, and a chronicle of the old times '' before the 
war." It was some time before he could get into the eso 
regular track of gossip, or could be made to comprehend 
the strange events that had taken place during his 
torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war, 
that the country had thrown off the yoke of old Eng- 
land, and that, instead of being a subject of his Majesty 635 
George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the 
United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician ; the 
changes of states and empires made but little impres- 
sion on him ; but there was one species of despotism 
under which he had long groaned, and that was — petti- 640 
coat government. Happilj^ that was at an end ; he had 
got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go 
in and out w^henever he pleased, without dreading the 
tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her name 
was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged 645 
his shoulders, and cast up his eyes ; which might pass 
either for an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy 
at his deliverance. 

46. He used to tell his story to every stranger that 
arrived at Mr. Doolittle's hotel. He w^as observed, ateoo 
first, to vary on some points every time he told it, which 
was, doubtless, owing to his having so recently awak- 
ened. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I 
have related, and not a man, woman, or child in the 
neighborhood, but knew it by heart. Some always pre- 655 
tended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip 
had been out of his head, and that this was one point 
on which he always remained flighty. The old Dutch 
inhabitants, however, almost universally gave it full 



88 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

credit. Even to this day they never hear a thunder- eeo 
storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but 
they saj^ Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their 
game of ninepins ; and it is a common wish of all hen- 
pecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs 
heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting 665 
draught out of Eip Van Winkle's flagon . 



NOTE. 

The foregoing tale, one would suspect, had been sug- 
gested to Mr. Knickerbocker by a little German super- 
stition about the Emperor Frederick der Rothbart, and 
the Kypphaiiser mountain : the subjoined note, how- 
ever, which he had appended to the tale, shows that it 
is an absolute fact, narrated with his usual fidelity :-~ 

**The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many, 
but nevertheless I give it my full belief, for I know the vicinity 
of our old Dutch settlements to have been very subject to 
marvellous events and appearances. Indeed, I have heard many 
stranger stories than this in the villages along the Hudson; all 
of which were too well authenticated to admit of a doubt. I 
have even talked with Rip Van Winkle myself, who, when I last 
saw him, was a very venerable old man, and so perfectly rational 
and consistent on every other point, that I think no conscientious 
person could refuse to take this into the bargain ; nay, I have 
seen a certificate on the subject, taken before a country justice, 
and signed with a cross, in the justice's own handwriting. The 
story, therefore, is beyond the possibility of doubt. D. K." 



POSTSCRIPT. 
The following are travelling notes from a memoran- 
dum-book of Mr. Knickerbocker : — 

The Kaatsberg, or Catskill Mountains, have always been a 
region full of fable. The Indians considered them the abode of 
spirits, who influenced the weather, spreading sunshine or clouds 

•LoFC. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 89 

over the landscape, and sending good or bad hunting seasons. 
They were ruled by an old squaw spirit, said to be their mother. 
She dwelt on the highest peak of the Catskills, and had charge 
of the doors of day and night, to open and shut them at the 
proper hour. She hung up the new moons in the skies, and cut 
up the old ones into stars. In times of drought, if properly 
propitiated, she would spin light-summer clouds out of cobwebs 
and morning dew, and send them off from the crest of the moun- 
tain, flake after flake, like flakes of carded cotton, to float in the 
air; until, dissolved by the heat of the sun, they would fall in 
gentle showers, causing the grass to spring, the fruits to ripen, 
and the corn to grow an inch an hour. If displeased, however, 
she would brew up clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of 
them like a bottle-bellied spider in the midst of its web ; and 
when these clouds broke, woe betide the valleys ! 

In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of 
Manitou or Spirit, who kept about the wildest recesses of the 
Catskill Mountains, and took a mischievous pleasure in wreaking 
all kinds of evils and vexations upon the red men. Sometimes 
he would assume the form of a bear, a panther, or a deer, lead 
the bewildered hunter a weary chase through tangled forests 
and among ragged rocks, and then spring off with a loud ho ! ho ! 
leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling precipice or raging 
torrent. 

The favorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a 
great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, 
from the flowering vines which clamber about it, and the wild 
flowers which abound in its neighborhood, is known by the name 
of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the 
haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the 
sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies, which lie on the surface. 
This place was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that 
the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its pre- 
cincts. Once upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his 
way penetrated to the garden rock, where he beheld a number 
of gourds placed in the crotches of trees. One of these he 
seized, and made off with it ; but in the hurry of his retreat he 
let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, 
which washed him away and swept him down precipices, where 
he was dashed to pieces, and the stream made its way to the 



90 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

Hudson, and continues to flow to the present day ; being the 
identical stream known by the name of the Kaaters-kill. 

List of words from Rip Van Winkle to be looked up in dic- 
tionary. Be sure to find the meaning of the word as used in the 
text. 

Par. 1. Dismembered, magical, barometers, vapors. 

Par. 2. Voyagers, descried, antiquity, original, latticed, gable, 
surmounted. 

Par. 3. Precise, descendant, chivalrous, material, ancestors, 
sample, obedient, universal, popularity, obsequious, conciliating, 
discipline, shrews, pliant, malleable, tribulation, termagant, 
tolerable. 

Par. 4. Amiable, troop, impunity. 

Par. 5. Composition, insuperable, aversion, profitable, assi- 
duity, perseverance, toil, errands. 

Par. 6. Pestilent, astray, patrimonial, conditional. 

Par. 7. Urchin, inherent, equipped. 

Par. 8. Contentment, incessantly, torrent, provoked. 

Par. 9. Domestic, adherent, crest, gallows, precipitation. 

Par. 10. Matrimony, console, frequenting, perpetual, sages, 
philosophers, personages, designated, rubicund, listlessly, pro- 
found, discussions, solemnly, dapper, daunted, gigantic, delib- 
erate. 

Par. 11. Patriarch, sufficiently, accurately, vehemently, in- 
hale, emit, placid, approbation. 

Par. 12. Assemblage, sacred, virigo. 

Par. 13. Alternative, sympathized, persecution, wistfully, 
verily, reciprocated, sentiment. 

Par. 14. Autumnal, unconsciously, solitudes, fatigued, herb- 
age, precipice, majestic, reflection, lagging. 

Par. 15. Fragments, impending, musing, gradually, encoun- 
tering. 

Par. 16. Solitary, vague, apprehension, unfrequented. 

Par. 17. Singularity, antique, ample, volume, decorated, dis- 
trustful, acquaintance, complied, alacrity, mutually, relieving, 
apparently, transient, amphitheatre, perpendicularly, impend- 
ing, former, marvelled, incomprehensible, familiarity. 

Par. 18. isinepins, doublets, jerkins, various. 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 91 

Par. 19. Evidently, amusing, maintained, mysterious, mel- 
ancholy, interrupted, peals. 

Par. 20. Desisted, uncouth, quaffed. 

Par. 21. Apprehension, subsided, ventured, beverage, flavor, 
draught, reiterated, overpowered, declined. 
Par. 22. Occurrences. 

Par. 23. Incrusted, roysters, dosed, disappeared. 
Par. 24. Determined, gambol, activity, frolic, difficulty, pre- 
ceding, astonishment, murmurs. 

Par. 25. Impenetrable, secure, elevation, perplexities, fam- 
ished, grieved, dreaded, anxiety. 

Par. 26. Accustomed, invariably, recurrence, gesture, in- 
duced, involuntarily. 

Par. 27. Recognized, altered, populous, misgave, addled. 
Par. 28. Decay, cur. 

Par. 29. Forlorn, abandoned, desolateness, connubial. 
Par. 30. Yore, ruby, metamorphosed, sceptre, decorated. 
Par. 31. Disputatious, phlegm, doling, handbills, harangu- 
ing, jargon, bewildered. 

Par. 32. Uncouth, tavern, politicians, curiosity, orator, 
vacant, stupidity, comprehensive, penetrating, breed, riot, dis- 
mayed. 

Par. 33. Refugee, assumed, austerity, culprit. 
Par. 34. Piping, militia. 
Par. 35. Enormous. 

Par. 36. Counterpart, confounded, identity. 
Par. 37. Significantly, suggestion, retired, precipitation, 
critical, comely. 

Par. 38. Faltering, passion. 
Par. 39. Intelligence. 
Par. 40. Amazed. 
Par. 41. Assemblage. 

Par. 42. Opinion, historian, inhabitant, corroborated, affirm- 
ed, vigil, enterprise, guardian. 

Par. 43. Concerns, ditto, evinced, hereditary, disposition. 
Par. 44. Resumed, cronies. 

Par. 45. Impunity, reverenced, chronicle, gossip, torpor, 
yoke, empires, impression, species, despotism, tyranny, resigna- 
tion, fate, deliverance. 

Par. 46. Recently, reality, flighty, quieting. 



92 RIP VAN WINKLE. 



QUESTIONS ON RIP VAN WINKLE. 

1. Locate the Kaatskill Mountaina. (Notice spelling.) Of 
what family a member? Why and by whom regarded as barom- 
eters? Describe the appearance of the mountains "when the 
weather is fair and settled." Explain " fairy mountains." 

2. When and by whom was the village founded? Who was 
Peter Stuyvesant? Describe the houses. 

3. Describe Rip Van Winkle. To what does he owe his 
** universal popularity?" What is meant by " fiery furnace of 
domestic tribulations ? " *' Curtain lecture?" Why might Rip 
Van Winkle be considered thrice blessed? 

4. Why was Rip a favorite with the " good wives " of the vil- 
lage? Why with the children? 

5. AVhat great error in Rip's composition? Mention two 
things which tend to show his perseverance. What character- 
istic is shown in lines 81-83? Is it one common to humanity? 

6. Give Rip's excuse for not working on his farm. Explain 
" patrimonial estate." 

7. Describe Rip's children. What does Rip, Jr. promise to in- 
herit? What word in line 106 accurately describes Rip's dis- 
position. 

8. What keeps Rip from " whistling his life away in perfect 
contentment ? " Explain '* a torrent of household eloquence." 
How does Rip reply? Explain "henpecked husband." 

9. Who is Rip's sole domestic adherent? (Notice the use of 
*' who.") How does Dame Van Winkle regard Wolf ? Compare 
Wolf's actions while in the house with those while outside. 

10. Memorize " A tart temper never mellows with age, and a 
sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with con- 
stant use." Who is meant by his " Majesty George the Third?" 

11. What is meant by the junto? Who is leader of the 
junto? Name one other member. 

12. Who routed Rip from this august assemblage? How? 

13. What is Rip's final alternative ? Why is the bond of 
sympathy so strong between him and Wolf? Is Rip's promise 
to stand by Wolf of much benefit to Wolf ? Why ? 

14. 15. Give all the reasons you can for the peculiar charm of 
paragraphs 14 and 15. 

16. What does Rip hear as he is about to descend the moun- 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 93 

tain? What eflfect does the call have upon Rip? Upon Wolf? 
What does Rip see ? Why does he hasten down ? What char- 
acteristic is shown in this? 

17. Describe the stranger. What is he carrying? How 
does he make his wishes known to Rip ? Where do the stranger 
and Rip go ? 

18. Whom does Rip see when they reach the end of their 
journey ? What are the men playing ? Describe their dress ; 
visages; commander. Of what do they remind Rip? 

19. What seems particularly odd to Rip? Explain "most 
melancholy party of pleasure." 

20. How do the strangers greet Rip and his companion ? 
What command is given ? How ? 

21. What overcomes Rip's apprehension? Is there any 
characteristic here shown ? What effect does the liquor have 
upon Rip ? How long does he sleep ? 

22. What does Rip do on waking? What thought is upper- 
most in his mind? 

23. What does he think has become of his gun? Of Wolf? 

24. What does Rip determine to do? What seems strange to 
him as he descends the mountain ? 

25. What does Rip find when he comes to the place where 
the ravine had opened into the amphitheatre? Describe Rip's 
feelings as he turns homeward. What is his greatest grief ? 

26. Whom does he meet as he returns home? How do the 
people regard him? What repeated action of theirs finally 
causes him to imitate them? Why is he surprised? 

27. Who are following Rip? Contrast the village now with 
the one Rip left. Is he certain that this is his native village? 
Prove by the text. Upon what does he lay the blame? Is this 
a characteristic ? 

28. Describe Rip's feelings upon approaching his own house? 

29. What overcame Rip's connubial fears? 

30. Where does Rip go after finding his house deserted? 
What does he see? 

31. Contrast present inhabitants with Rip's old friends. 
For whom is Rip looking ? Why is he confused ? 

32. Why does Rip attract undue attention ? How do the 
people regard him ? 

33. What do the people mean by shouting, "Atory! a 



94 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

tory !" What effect does this have upon the *' self-important " 
man? Upon Eip? For whom does Eip ask ? 

34,35. Explain: Stony Point, Antony's Nose, "Rip's 
heart died away." What causes Rip to doubt his own identity? 

36,37. Quote lines 531-536. Who arrives at the ''critical 
moment?" 

38, 39. Was it Dame Van Winkle's death or the manner of 
it that gave Rip a *' drop of comfort ? " Is there anything pecul- 
iarly fitting in the manner of her death ? 

40, 41, 42. Tell Peter Vanderdonk's story, what light does it 
throw on the scenes in the amphitheatre ? 

43, 44. Contrast Rip's former life with his life now. 

45, 46. What efi'ect did the change of empires have upon 
Rip? Name one "species of despotism" from which he was 
especially thankful to be relieved. What do people still say 
when they hear a thunder storm about the summit of the 
Kaatskill mountains? What is a common wish of all hen- 
pecked husbands ? 

What was the author's object in writing this story? 

NOTE. 
The idea of a twenty years' sleep was not original with Irving, 
but was borrowed from an old German tradition, the hero of 
which, Peter Klaus, is represented as a goatherd from Sittendorf , 
who met a party of knights playing at skittles in a dell of the 
Harz Mountains, and drank a miraculous draught of wine which 
put him to sleep for twenty years. 



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